Greater Sudbury is encouraging holiday revellers to park the car and be safe this holiday season.
In North Bay, the overnight parking ban remains in place. Last week, Greater Sudbury passed a motion at its City Council allowing for holiday parking accommodations.
Greater Sudbury has an overnight parking ban in place during the winter, as the City of North Bay does. The motion from our neighbour to the west allows for parking on local roadways and in municipal parking lots on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
The motion reads “the holiday season is a time when people traditionally gather socially to enjoy the company of family and friends…and whereas the City of Greater Sudbury and many of its community partners desire to promote sensible strategies to prevent impaired driving…”
What if it snows?
Greater Sudbury Communications Officer Shannon Dowling says, “While we don’t appear to have significant snowfall in the forecast, we would, of course, be looking to achieve a balance in being able to properly respond to a winter snow event while honouring the direction of Council’s motion.
“If a significant snowfall was anticipated, there are options we could consider similar to what other municipalities like Barrie does in this situation. The likeliest options include encouraging residents to use municipal lots so we can take care of snow removal in the areas in question.
“Our roads crews and by-law officers already operate on a case by case basis on the dates in question, when it comes to winter events and snow removal. This would be no different and would be manageable by staff.”
It does not cover the overnight hours but the City of North Bay has announced Municipal Lot #11, located across McIntyre Street from City Hall, will offer free parking from today until January 1. All you have to do is enter the code “CNB4633” into the pay and display machine and place the ticket on your dashboard.
CITY OF NORTH BAY MUNICIPAL PARKING LOT#11 HOLIDAY FREE PARKING- Monday December 17 through to January 1. Enter the code CNB4633 into the pay and display machine and display the ticket on your dashboard
— City of North Bay (@cityofnorthbay) December 17, 2018
So, why not a similar lifting of the ban in North Bay? City By-Law Officer Ron Melnyk says while Sudbury’s ban begins at midnight, North Bay’s parking prohibition does not take effect until much later.
Melnyk says, “We do recognize that there will be increased evening parking in many areas including residential areas due to holiday celebrations such as Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. We do expect that people follow the overnight parking rules during these times because if we do receive snow or freezing rain, City crews will be expected to be out to maintain the roads.
“Unfortunately, if we freely allow everyone to park on the streets for these nights there will be a risk that plows will not be able to clear streets of snow and ice. Although many other municipalities start their overnight parking ban at midnight, North Bay’s overnight parking ban does not start until 3:00am, which tends to be after most celebratory events have concluded for the night.”
Why not allow overnight parking in municipal lots as Greater Sudbury plans to? Melnyk says, “Lot 4 (the parking garage) does have overnight parking for $5 per night, which is well worth the money if you plan to be in the downtown and have to leave a vehicle there.”
