A Burnaby homeowner is fuming because he received a ticket and a warning that he could be towed away for parking in front of his own house.
But does owning a home mean that you are exempt from parking restrictions in the city?
Don seems to think so.
“I pay a lot of property taxes and I don’t think I should have been treated like this,” said Don, who contacted me after reading my series of recent parking columns. It’s outrageous. I shouldn’t get threatened by the city for parking in front of my own house.”
But the street Don lives on has parking that is not open for vehicles to park on for days at a time.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “People who own houses should be able to be able to park in front of them without worrying they are going to get towed.”
Richard Kozoris would agree with Don.
He’s a Port Coquitlam resident who got a parking ticket for parking too close to his own driveway.
“It’s ludicrous, that’s absolutely nuts” said Kozoris,”My bumper was on the edge of the driveway.”
The long-time PoCo resident says parking is often tight on Myrtle Way across from Irvine Elementary school but construction at the school has only made things worse.
“It’s bumper to bumper parking,” he said.
Kozoris said he usually leaves his driveway open for his wife to get out, and tries to leave additional space for a neighbour, too.
His actions don’t inconvenience anyone, he said, but he was told “that’s the law.”
“Excuse me, it’s my house, my car, my driveway,” he said.
This is all interesting stuff. I’m sure people who rent who don’t have any parking spaces on the property they live on will feel really sympathetic about homeowners who have a $1M+ in equity complain about also demanding free rein of the street parking.
- With additional reporting by Diane Strandberg
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
