As parking continues to be the stumbling block on Penetanguishene’s decisions regarding the town dock, its reconstruction project and the town’s Main Street, council are aware and taking steps to keep the ball rolling through the obstacle.
At the recent committee of the whole meeting, a previously deferred parking study and its recommendations returned for consideration; that had been done due to confusion from council members wanting to add or remove various items before going to a vote.
Section chair Coun. Bonita Desroches quipped at the beginning that although she had been absent during the previous discussion, she’d seen the replay and was “prepared for another one.”
Many points and counterpoints remained from the previous meeting.
Deputy Mayor Dan La Rose disapproved as he reasoned why snowbanks would further displace parked vehicles at the top of Main Street until no car could safely park there, and how his frequent anecdotal tally of the town dock boat launch parking spots ran opposite to the consultant’s two observations from a camera on a pole twice last year.
“If I went down there and took my truck and trailer – launched my boat – I'm going to go park over wherever I want on the paved portion or the gravel portion, and I have to pay for my parking. You come down to the town dock to get a hamburger; you pull in right beside me and it's free parking.
“That's absolutely ludicrous,” said La Rose, who opted to receive everything as information with the intent to go to a public information centre where the public could share their thoughts.
Others shared the sentiment, but both Desroches and Coun. Suzanne Marchand countered that the studies, consultations and community engagements had all been provided and completed previously, with the study and its recommendations before council as the proof.
“There is extensive feedback around the dock master plan, and our committee around parking, because that's all we've ever talked about – we can't seem to get to the next phase of what our vision looks like,” said Marchand. “Parking is just such a hot topic and a button.”
Planning and community development director Andrea Betty summarized that the intention of the motion was to provide direction on space allocation for the master plan design process, knowing what was a minimum need but not suggesting additional parking couldn’t be added.
A recommendation by Coun. George Vadeboncoeur to separate the dock parking elements from the main motion was approved by the committee, and once those were isolated, a further amendment to the main motion by Mayor Doug Rawson to seek public input which would return to the committee as further information was also approved.
The vote to consolidate the town dock parking area into an area sufficient for boat trailer and passenger vehicle parking spaces to be included in the dock secondary plan and master plan project, as per Vadeboncoeur's amendment, was defeated.
Decisions of the committee of the whole are anticipated to appear for possible ratification at an upcoming regular meeting of council.
The parking strategy study and recommendations can be located on the agenda page of the Town of Penetanguishene website.
Meetings of Penetanguishene council are held on the second Wednesday of each month, and can be watched live on Rogers TV cable 53 when available, or on the Rogers TV website.
Archives of council meetings are located on the Town of Penetanguishene YouTube channel.