City council unanimously defeated one of its own bylaw amendments aimed at curbing the practice of parking RVs and truck-and-trailer combinations in commercial parking lots while also outlawing the practice of parking vehicles with for-sale signs on private properties next to roads.
The proposed bylaw amendments would have limited the amount of time any vehicle could park on a residential road. Under the existing legislation, which now remains unchanged, a vehicle can park on a road for up to 72 hours, while RVs and trucks and trailers were limited to 24 hours.
The bylaw amendment would have limited all vehicles to a maximum of 24 hours parking on a residential road.
In introducing the bylaw amendment, Aaron Giesbrecht, manager of policing services, warned the change could have a widespread impact.
“If this amendment goes through, there will be a significant impact on the ability of people to park in front of their homes,” Giesbrecht said. “We could see some human resource issues with officers responding to those calls.”
The second part of the bylaw would have restricted to 24 hours the length of time a truck with a trailer can park in a commercial parking lot from 72 hours to 24. Giesbrecht warned council again, this time pointing out RVs would still be allowed to park in parking lots for 72 hours.
The bylaw’s defeat means both RVs and trucks and trailers can park in commercial parking lots for 72 hours. Council had endorsed the bylaw revisions in the spring to combat the practice of RV and trailer owners “camping out” in large commercial parking lots, such as Walmart. A recommendation proposed in May that would have limited RV parking to 24 hours was defeated by a tie vote.
Coun. Malcolm Parker mulled resurrecting the May motion that was defeated but eventually did not.
“In terms of revisiting that, council has already weighed in so what’s in front of us is what Aaron Giesbrecht has been instructed to do,” Mayor Nolan Crouse told Parker.
Giesbrecht said bylaw has enforced restrictions on residential street parking fairly consistently, but seldom issues a ticket.
“Typically a ticket is not issued. We try to educate the owner,” Giesbrecht said.
Council did endorse a crackdown on the practice of parking vehicles with “For Sale” signs on land facing public roads, but did so by amending the land use bylaw.
The Provincial Traffic Safety Act does not allow vehicles with such signs to be parked on property adjacent roads, but St. Albert’s land use bylaw allows the practice. The amendment, Giesbrecht said, brings the land use bylaw into conformance with the act.
“This is the amendment that would allow enforcement,” Giesbrecht said.
Car dealerships and businesses that have vehicles with advertising painted on will not be affected, Giesbrecht said.
“The target is specifically looking at vehicles that are being displayed for sale.”
