It could soon be even harder for teachers and staff at Riverview Elementary to find parking near the school as Verdun studies new reserved parking spots.
Residents who live along a section of Godin Street will be voting in a public consultations.
In a public notice, the borough says residents asked for the spaces between Monteith and Bannantyne.
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For staff at Riverview Elementary the news comes as a concern as space is limited around the school.
“It has taken me half an hour. I remember parking by the water. I remember parking four blocks down the street. Sometime I get really lucky. Sometimes I don’t get lucky at all, ” kindergarten teacher Dimitri Panayotidis said.
Like many teachers who live outside of the area, Panayotidis lives in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent borough. He finds it difficult driving into work because of the parking situation.
Riverview has no designated parking lot, forcing staff to the street.
“It’s embracing calling the secretary to tell her I’m 10 minutes late. It doesn’t look good on us, but we can’t do anything about it,” Panayotidis said.
Staff have already gone through this before. Last year the borough introduced vignette parking on Riverview Avenue, removing previous available spaces.
“It’s frustrating because I see a whole block area empty and we can’t park there because we don’t have the vignettes. If we had something for teachers that would be great,” Panayotidis said.
Some residents who live on Godin street say paying for parking is not needed for the area.
“I don’t think it is necessary because we have a lot of free space. Here we only have one restriction per week ,” Anne Catherine Caron said.
Maxime Beaudoin says the parking seems like a cash grab, “we don’t have stores around for people to shop. It’s all residents. I feel like it’s more of a new tax,” Beaudoin said.
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The consultation process is only open to residents of the small section of street. Teachers will not be able to vote.
However, school officials say they are in open discussions with the borough to find a possible solution. Staff members say they would like to have designed parking spaces for teachers along the street during school hours.
Borough officials close to the file did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Global News.
Residents will have until Dec. 5 to participate in the consultation. More than 50 per cent of the homeowners on the street will have to vote down the project for it to be cancelled.
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