New parking regulations for Yorkville area
Visitors to Yorkville should have an easier time driving around, and residents are likely to find themselves navigating less traffic.
A request by the Bloor-Yorkville BIA to amend some of the neighbourhood’s parking regulations was approved by the Toronto and East York Community Council on Sept. 8 in hopes of making it easier for all to get around.
The new regulations, which have extended the service time of several parking machines by two hours, eliminated five no-parking zones and a restricted period parking zone. It also moved around several no standing, no stopping, and commercial loading zones, which were cobbled together by BIA staff based on a 2013 poll of the organization’s approximately 1600 members, Bloor-Yorkville BIA executive director Briar de Lange said.
De Lange calling discussions between BIA and city staff “non-contentious” and Ward 27 councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam calling them “uncontroversial.”
“City staff went out and reviewed our request and were in agreement,” de Lange said. “And we’re pleased because it’s what we asked for.”
The new regulations include the weekday service hours of several parking machines being extended by two hours, now running 4 p.m. until midnight; converting a restricted period parking zone on Cumberland Street between Bay and Yonge Streets into a paid parking zone; creating a no stopping zone along Yorkville Avenue’s south side between Avenue Road and Yonge Street; and creating a no standing/no stopping zone in the St. Thomas and Sultan Street intersection west of Bay and south of Bloor Street, which de Lange said had become a traffic bottleneck.
“I think most people recognized that the recommendations from the BIA were made to improve the area’s traffic conditions,” Wong-Tam said. “We also checked with the Toronto Parking Authority, and they had no opposition.”
