'Hillbilly Parking' Outlawed

Robert Thomas

Parking in your front yard, without a proper permitted driveway and driveway surface, is now illegal with Zoning Bylaw 5552. 

The Bylaw 5552 amendments to Bylaw 5436 will mean people can only park in their front yards when they have an approved driveway. Additionally, the parking surface must be gravel, asphalt, concrete, brick pavers or a similar material. Plus the size of the parking area cannot be wider than the approved driveway crossing.

Plans to amend the bylaw have drawn both praise and anger, from residents, on social media. 

Some people are saying the bylaw is necessary because people parking in their front lawns made certain areas of the city look untidy, like “hillbillies” lived in the neighbourhood.

While others have pointed out, that with the City going to one-side parking on some narrow streets, with small lots, that residents have lost the ability to park in front of their own homes and plug their vehicles in. They feel it is none of the City’s business to tell property owners what they can do with their own yards.

The new bylaw makes no mention of grandfathering in existing parking, where people have parking areas larger than the approved driveway crossing.