Beaches homeowners and tenants in parking tug-of-war

A quiet street where the neighbours all seem to know each other while greeting strangers with friendly hellos, Maclean Avenue in the Beaches seems to enjoy a strong sense of community.

Simmering underneath, though, is a raging dispute over and scramble for on-street parking that has spilled over onto neighbouring side-streets.

Maclean Avenue is made up of large houses with long driveways, sometimes leading to garages. At its northern connection with Queen Street are two low-rise apartment buildings, with Queen Street addresses and no on-site parking for tenants.

Those tenants used to be able to use their City of Toronto district 9C parking permits to leave their cars on Maclean Avenue overnight, but were treated to rude awakenings recently when many found their vehicles ticketed, and the signs reserving the eastern curb for permitted parking removed.

With no warning, they were left with was a sudden and urgent need to make alternate parking plans.

“I have parked at the (Green) P park down there and paid nine more dollars overnight and walked home,” explains Christine Farewell. “It could be 10, 11 pm. You could get into a safety issue.”

Asked if she has made alternate parking plans yet, Heather Teal told Global News “No! I park it on Maclean and I’m going to continue to park it on Maclean. They can throw my butt to jail if they want to!”

Teal claimed she has received multiple tickets, taken them all to Metro Hall downtown and had them cleared by staff there who have acknowledged that as a permit owner she remains entitled to park on Maclean until its expiration in May, 2024.

“The government says buy a permit, I bought a permit. Now the government says I’m not allowed to park here? I don’t get it.”

Making the frustration worse, residents say they didn’t find out from the city, but through notes posted on their vehicles and doors by a concerned neighbour encouraging them to let their local City Councillor hear it.

“PLEASE email Brad Bradford expressing your frustrations and concerns,” it reads. “The more his office is overwhelmed, the better.”

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In an email, Councillor Bradford told Global News that permitted parking was added to the area by City Council in its previous term and that the decision to remove it was made in 2019, based on a poll of Maclean Avenue residents conducted by city staff.

Due to a clerical issue, Bradford says the local signage wasn’t changed until a recently, roughly three years later.

Now apartment tenants, caught off guard, are stuck. They argue homeowners on Maclean Avenue already have driveways, so they don’t need the space in the road like they do.

“Whose questions or whose issues is the city going to hear,” asks tenant Malav Naik. “Are we all equal citizens with the Council? Do we all have the right to have our issues heard? Because I don’t feel it this way.”

Their permits are still good for the district, so many are cramming into neighbouring sidestreets where residents like Kevin McNamara now find themselves caught in the scramble.

“All the cars that used to park on Maclean, I think it could house up to 26 to 28 cars, they’ve all come on to Duart Park and Crown Park and we’re already full, so there’s not enough room.”

Councillor Bradford has told locals he may consider doing another poll, but warns that only Maclean Avenue property owners would get to vote. There is no guarantee the result will be any different.

He may not be wrong. Homeowner Wayne Summerville says he voted against the parking permits last time, and would do it again. He claims permit holders more often end up keeping their cars parked and use transit to get around.

“This isn’t a storage area for cars, and currently as we speak today … there’s a car parked aroud the corner … and it’s been here since last fall and it just stays there day and night and never moves.”

Tenants say they’ve been petitioning homeowners on Maclean hoping to change their minds and have received some support so far, but would always welcome more.