Drivers in Okotoks will need to be more aware of where they park at certain times of the year.
Town council approved an amendment to its traffic bylaw on Feb. 24 to create maintenance routes and allow for parking bans during snow removal and street-cleaning on Priority 1 and Priority 2, collector and arterial, routes in town.
“Currently temporary signage is used for road maintenance,” said Peter Stapley, Okotoks Municipal Enforcement manager. “The current method is inefficient and very time-consuming.”
He said a review of best practices from other municipalities showed maintenance route parking legislation was a common and more efficient way to handle issues with vehicles hindering snow removal or street-cleaners.
The new bylaw allows the Town’s CAO to declare a parking ban when necessary in order to make cleaning and maintenance easier, faster and safer.
“Residents will be required to remove their vehicles from the specified maintenance routes when a ban is declared,” said Stapley.
He said the bylaw amendment allows officers to educate, warn, ticket or tow offenders’ vehicles, depending on the situation.
The bylaw could help remove snow and ice build-up and improve drainage due to more thorough cleaning being possible, he said.
Municipal enforcement will move ahead with an education and communications plan to inform residents of the changes, as well as posting signage in affected areas.
Protective services director Kelly Stienwand said there shouldn’t be any increased budget requests due to the service level change.
“We’re going to be able to take advantage of a lot of existing poles and locations for signage,” said Stienwand. “There’s no additional money required at this time.”
Coun. Tanya Thorn said she appreciates the spirit of the bylaw, but said there may be some requests from residents wanting to see the same ban in their Priority 3 routes, particularly for street-cleaning.
For instance, in her own neighbourhood there are half a dozen vehicles that don’t move on street-sweeping days, annoying other residents.
“I think that as our residents were responding to that survey they were looking at it from their local neighbourhood lens,” said Thorn. “So for us to do this just on certain routes, we just need to be prepared for the friction on the other side, that they are going to be looking for parking bans in their neighbourhoods.”
Stienwand said municipal enforcement will continue to respond to complaints from residents in those cases of “hibernating vehicles,” but having maintenance routes and parking bans will allow for more proactive actions on major roads.
‘This is an enhancement we’re starting with here to improve service delivery and once it’s evaluated I believe there will be, we’ll continue to grow or evolve as far as how we deploy this system,” he said. “We’ll learn from our best practices.”
