After Old Ottawa South residents
raised safety concerns about OC Transpo buses mounting the sidewalk
to navigate the narrow Grove Avenue, the local councillor has asked the city to look into a winter parking ban as a possible solution.
While a timeline remains unclear, Capital ward Coun. Shawn Menard says he has directed staff to examine if a winter parking ban is an option the city is willing to explore this winter and what signage requirements would look like.
“We’re trying to get through the winter as much as possible, but, in the future, a winter parking ban could be the next step, and that could happen later this winter for a month just to test it out,” Menard said Thursday.
An infrastructure replacement project narrowed Grove Avenue by nearly 2.5 metres, with the new street design including a four-metre vehicle lane and a 2.5-metre on-street parking area alongside neighbourhood improvements such as increased traffic-calming measures and wider sidewalks.
But a particularly snowy winter has further reduced the width of the road, leaving some residents searching for solutions as growing snowbanks leave little room for both vehicle traffic and on-street parking.
Throughout this winter, Menard says he’s been focusing on enhanced snow removal and snow trucking so Grove Avenue can remain wide enough for buses to pass by parked vehicles without driving up on the sidewalk.
So far this winter, he said, three snow removals have taken place on Grove, whereas the rest of the ward has only had one.
But, after hearing that additional snow removal hadn’t fully solved the problem, Menard said the city may look to trial a winter parking ban on that block of Grove Avenue between Seneca and Bank streets, temporarily removing seven or eight on-street parking spots.
Grove Avenue residents remain divided about how a winter parking ban would impact the neighbourhood.
John Seguin, who lives on the block where Grove Avenue winter parking restrictions would be enforced, said that “would create a whole other set of problems” for residents and visitors.
“To ban winter parking means that, basically, you’re telling people, ‘Don’t come see me at my house because there’s nowhere to park,’” he said. “That last block of Grove would not be welcoming to people.”
He also worries about residents having work done on their homes if large pickup trucks and vans don’t have places to park. Others have also emphasized the need to keep on-street parking so personal support workers and other essential services could easily access their homes.
“In the long-term, it’s not a viable solution and it’s penalizing residents for a mistake that the city made,” Seguin said.
Menard said he understood the inconvenience a winter parking ban would cause for residents, but said that his priority was mitigating the safety issue residents had raised by using the tools at his disposal.
“The bus is going up on the sidewalk, which can’t happen,” the councillor said. “If that means it’s one block where we try (a winter parking ban) for seven or eight parking spots, then I think we should respond to that. If people are upset about losing that parking, I understand it.”
But the discontent with the new street design isn’t universal among Grove Avenue residents. Menard said he’d heard from many people applauding the wider sidewalks and new traffic-calming measures on the street.
Steve Mennill, who lives at the intersection of Grove and Leonard Avenue, said he’d seen a noticeable decrease in traffic speeds, fewer cars running through the stop sign and fewer vehicles travelling the wrong way down the one-way road.
He said the new design encouraged more pedestrian orientation and, in many ways, returned the street to how it was designed before most households had cars.
“It’s not possible to design urban infrastructure to accommodate car usage at current rates,” he said.
Mennill also said that, unlike many other streets in Old Ottawa South, the vast majority of houses on Grove Avenue have driveways and access to off-street parking.
If a winter parking ban still doesn’t solve the problem on Grove, Menard said the next step would be to look at rerouting transit off the street and onto nearby Sunnyside Avenue. Additionally, he said, the city will also be painting yellow lines on the road in the spring to outline street parking boundaries that will give buses enough clearance.
Redoing the street altogether is another possible option Menard outlined.
For now, though, a winter parking ban is the most feasible option the city could look to implement this winter. Menard said he’d be hearing back from city staff with recommendations in the coming weeks.
“I don’t want to implement something if the weather is co-operating, too, but it would be interesting to see if it would work for one month and see if that actually solves the problem for the future,” he said.
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