Midland’s parking woes were alleviated a little bit at Wednesday's council meeting.
Through new staff member municipal law enforcement manager Rob Kennedy, a parking bylaw update and report were brought to the committee of the whole, where Kennedy had addressed six notable changes from the previous bylaw.
Council members were interested to learn during the recent 2025 budget discussions that parking in downtown Midland had been limited to two hours last year, but due to an oversight, could not be legally enforced. That change was addressed in the bylaw update.
External to the downtown core, current parking bylaws allow for 12 hours parking on any Midland roads with Kennedy proposing six hours maximum to allow for more reasonable enforcement.
Coun. Eric ‘Howie’ Major took several minutes to press Kennedy regarding parking in his neighbourhood, related signage, and a lack of enforcement.
The lengthy conversation allowed Kennedy to confirm that an upcoming task for his department would be to address streets without proper signs and remedy those areas.
Said Major: “Can’t hardly wait (for you) to show up, to put the signs up where I live.”
Laughter came from staff, including during Mayor Bill Gordon’s follow-up comment: “It’ll be the first street (Kennedy) goes to.”
Quipped Coun. Jamie-Lee Ball: “We don’t need to bring back paid parking, we’re just going to go ticket Howie’s street, right?"
Kennedy noted that ticketing parking outside the downtown area would be based on resident complaints due to lack of available enforcement at all hours across the town.
With the changes and knowledge that it would be cost-prohibitive to put up signs on every street in town, Gordon suggested to Kennedy that entrance signs to Midland on major arteries display the changes for the six-hour parking limit and more; Kennedy replied that it was “a terrific idea.”
Another change to the bylaws was proposed to allow enforcement on any accessible parking space on public or private property. The subject prompted Gordon to provide a public announcement for frustrated residents who paid fines at the town office due to proactive enforcement.
“Since I see a steady stream of people coming to my office – clutching their ticket in hand, shaking their head – a lot of times they’ve got an expired accessible parking permit,” said Gordon.
“It’s in giant, bold, black writing on the face of the handicap permit,” he explained, adding the ease to which a person could renew. “If you know you’re going to need one of these permits for the rest of your life, you still have to renew it. It has an expiry date.”
Gordon told MidlandToday after the meeting that usually two or three residents per day would visit the office but leave with understanding once the reasons were explained. He also advised that permits should be visible for enforcement, with the best placement on the dashboard in an easy-to-read area.
Other changes included: Removal of a duplication bylaw regarding fees for taxi cab stands and the Pete Pettersen boat launch area; clearly designated areas for paid and prohibited parking areas in that boat launch; and an anticipatory addition in expectation of the upcoming AMPS (administrative monetary penalties system) program.
Increased overall fines were recommended within the report, as staff had discovered those as being “well below the average across the province and other area municipalities.”
An upcoming strategic parking management study necessitated the removal of related provisions and sections in the proposed bylaw update, according to the report.
The committee of the whole approved the recommendations, with ratification anticipated at an upcoming regular meeting of council. The parking bylaw update report is available in the council agenda on the town of Midland website.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.