All Francie Dupuis longs to be able to park on her street again.
A 2008 reconstruction of a stretch of Penetanguishe's Church Street, between Yeo and Burke Streets resulted in the removal of street parking provisions the Dupuis' had been using for decades.
Last year, they went to council to talk about the issue.
"We went to meetings before Christmas," said Dupuis, who even had about 10 of her neighbours sign a letter in support of her request that she subsequently sent to council. "I just assumed it would have been looked after by now."
Dupuis said she's been given all sorts of excuses, such as that the street was a fire route for Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Car, but that's not the case anymore.
"We're the only street in Penetang that you can't park on the street," Dupuis said. "We're much wider than other streets. There's no sensible reason for it. When my family comes here, we have to call neighbours for my kids to park somewhere."
Bryan Murray, director of planning, acknowledged staff had been asked by council to take a look at solutions for the parking issue on that stretch of Church Street, but hadn't gotten around to it yet.
"This section of Church Street, since it's been reconstructed, there's no ability for people to park on the street," he said. "Due to the topography, it's quite steep in places. We put a sidewalk and full curb and gutter and the travel width of Church Street wasn't able to accommodate on-street parking without some significant changes in costs associated with that."
A report presented to council last December, explained that due to the topography on the west and east sides of Church Street, between Burke and Yeo Streets, the road surface area was reduced to 6.5m. A pavement width of 8.5m is required to maintain two 3m travel lanes and one 2.5m parking aisle in accordance with standards. Hence, the municipality amended the traffic/parking bylaw and prohibited parking on either side of the road to allow vehicles on Church Street to move unobstructed.
Dupuis said she disagrees with the topography claim.
"It's as flat as a pancake," she said, adding, "he (Murray) doesn't want to move on it."
Murray said one reason things would be further delayed was because of the town's inability to allow public attendance at a council meeting.
"We're looking to bring that forward to council in future," he saud. "In its current state, the video council meetings we're having doesn't provide the opportunity."
Any changes to parking on Church Street, as directed by council, may also require a change to the parking bylaw, Murray added.
