Parking at Mr. Gas has become an issue, according to the manager of the store.
In a letter to West Nipissing council the manager said patrons of the nearby Tim Hortons and Beer Store will park at the station before entering either store. This ends up causing problems for the gas station with deliveries, customer parking, and a Greyhound bus that comes twice a day. They claim, despite their warnings, and the installation of “No Parking” signs, the drivers still park on their property.
The request to council was to amend the parking by-law to allow the municipality to enforce parking regulations on privately owned properties.
After debating the issue within council, Mayor Joanne Savage says the issue did not fall on deaf ears, but they will not be changing the by-law.
“Council was very sympathetic towards the issue, realizing the actual location of the business and the challenges they face,” she explained. “Per council’s decision, we will not be adopting a by-law to enforce parking on private parking lots.”
The municipality does, however, enforce parking on private property for disabled and fire route spots and that inconsistency was presented to council.
When it comes to these types of parking issues “it was left to the onus of the business operators to deal with those issues,” Savage explained.