May 26, 1999
To: Etobicoke Community Council
From: John W. Thomas, P.Eng., MBA, Director, Transportation Services - District 2
Subject: On-street Parking Permits
The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard/Bexhill Court
(Kingsway-Humber)
Purpose:
To inform Etobicoke Community Council of the results of a public opinion survey regarding on-street parking permits in The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard/Bexhill Court area, and to recommend that the Toronto Parking Authority install additional metered parking stalls on the east side of The Kingsway, north of Anglesey Boulevard.
Funding Sources:
The funds associated with the installation and maintenance of metered parking is contained in the operating budget of the Toronto Parking Authority.
Recommendations:
It is recommended that:
(1) On-street parking permits not be introduced on Anglesey Boulevard, The Kingsway, or Bexhill Court;
(2) The Toronto Parking Authority repair and/or replace the existing non-functioning parking meters on Anglesey Boulevard, The Kingsway, and Bexhill Court;
(3) The Toronto Parking Authority review the rate structure and permitted times for metered parking in The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard/Bexhill Court area; and
(4) The Toronto Parking Authority install additional metered parking stalls on the east side of The Kingsway, north of Anglesey Boulevard, and that Schedule C of Section 187(11) and Schedule VIII of Chapter 240 of the Etobicoke Municipal Code be amended accordingly, and as described in the attached by-laws.
Council Reference:
In October 1998, Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby asked that staff investigate the possibility of introducing additional metered parking stalls in The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard area (Attachment No. 1). In January 1999, Councillor Lindsay Luby wrote to us requesting that we undertake ". . . the necessary studies to see if [on-street] permit parking could be a viable option to this problem [the lack of on-street metered parking]" (Attachment No. 2).
Medium density rental apartment buildings dominate the area of The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard/Bexhill Court (Attachment No. 3). These apartment buildings were constructed in the early 1950's, predating current Etobicoke Zoning Code parking standards. Our survey of apartment owners in the area found that for a total of 714 occupied apartment units there was a total of 404 on-site parking spaces, or 0.57 parking spaces per dwelling unit.
Discussion:
Introduction of On-Street Parking Permits
In 1982, Council for the former City of Etobicoke proposed issuing overnight parking permits to apartment residents in The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard/Bexhill Court area; however, it was rejected when survey results failed to find popular consensus for such a proposal.
In 1996, staff again surveyed area residents to obtain their opinion toward on-street parking permits. While many residents who responded to the survey said that they were concerned with a lack of visitor parking, there was no popular support for on-street parking permits, and staff did not pursue the proposal.
In response to Councillor Lindsay Luby’s request, staff sent survey questionnaires, by first class mail, to the 843 residential apartment units in the area (Attachment No. 4). The questionnaires provided information on the on-street parking permit program described in the Etobicoke Municipal Code, and asked if residents were in favour of it. Of the 136 responses that we received, sixty-eight percent opposed on-street parking permits.
To examine the adequacy of visitor parking that area residents had previously identified as an issue, staff conducted a parking occupancy study of all metered parking stalls in the study area. Visitor parking demand is typically at its peak on Saturday evening, and the study was done Saturday, February 27, 1999, between the hours of 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. The study showed that 209 of the 215 existing metered parking stalls were occupied. This is equivalent to an occupancy rate of 97 percent; however, license plate traces showed that nearly one-half of all vehicles parked at the meters were registered to owners who did not reside in the study area.
Introduction of Additional Metered Parking
Responding to concerns from area residents regarding a lack of on-site and on-street parking, the City of Etobicoke introduced metered parking stalls on Anglesey Boulevard, Bexhill Court, and The Kingsway, in 1989. The meters allow parking for a maximum of nine hours between 8:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m., seven days a week, and at a cost of $0.50 per night. At all other times, the maximum three hour parking limit applies.
At present, most of the parking meters are broken. We relaxed parking enforcement in the area to avoid penalizing residents who have no other option but to park in the metered stalls. The Toronto Parking Authority advises that they will replace the parking meters following the fall 1999 reconstruction of this section of Anglesey Boulevard.
In 1989, the City of Etobicoke maximized the on-street parking supply in the study area by redesigning the parking stalls on the north side of Anglesey Boulevard from parallel to angle. In connection with the reconstruction of Anglesey Boulevard that will be completed in the fall of 1999, we will convert the parallel stalls on the south side of Anglesey Boulevard, between Royal York Road and The Kingsway, to angle parking. This will increase the number of metered parking stalls on the south side of Anglesey Boulevard from 29 to 50.
We would like to point out that from a traffic operations perspective, angled on-street parking stalls can restrict sight lines for motorists when they back out of the stalls; however, in this area, the median-divided traffic flow on Anglesey Boulevard, combined with low traffic volumes and reduced parking stall turnover resulting from the residential character of the surrounding neighbourhood, keeps this conflict to a minimum. A description of the number and location of metered parking stalls in the area is described in the following table:
At the request of Councillor Lindsay Luby, we examined the possibility of installing additional metered parking on the east side of The Kingsway, north of the existing limit of the metered parking stalls, and adjacent the west side of Humber Valley Park. This will provide approximately 18 additional metered parking stalls, but requires that the existing daytime parking prohibition (from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.) extending across the frontage of Humber Valley Park, on the east side of The Kingsway, from Hartfield Road to a point 134 m south, be removed (Attachment No. 5).
Conclusions:
The introduction of on-street parking permits in The Kingsway/Anglesey Boulevard/Bexhill Court would eliminate visitor use of most of the on-street parking stalls. In view of the substantial amount of visitor parking that occurs during peak periods, Etobicoke’s on-street parking permit program does not appear to be a realistic parking strategy for this area.
Our parking surveys also show that visitor parking appears to generate a significant demand for the existing supply of on-street metered parking stalls on The Kingsway, Anglesey Boulevard, and Bexhill Court. This suggests that parking generated by residents may be overestimated. These observations suggest that if we are to use the metered parking stalls to their maximum potential, the study area requires a complete review of the parking meter rates and permitted times.
Converting the parallel parking stalls on the south side of Anglesey Boulevard to an angle pattern will add 21 additional metered stalls. Approximately 18 metered parking stalls can be installed on the east side of The Kingsway, north of the existing limit of the on-street parking meters, and across the frontage of Humber Valley Park. In total, these revisions increase the area’s supply of on-street metered parking by 18 percent; from 215 stalls to 254.
Contact Name:
Allan Smithies, Manager, Traffic Planning/
