"Muriel Avenue is a very graphic example of the detrimental effects front yard parking has on a neighbourhood," says Ron McKay, who's lived on the street near Pape and Danforth with his family for ten years. South of Selkirk Street, there's a relatively mature canopy of trees shading the street, shielding homes from the wind and the sun, and greening the avenue. To the north, only one mature tree remains standing, says Ron, and parking pads — those strips of pavement in front of homes that provide personal parking spaces on private property — are largely to blame.
Technically, front yard parking pads are private spaces, but the negative effect they have on our public space — our trees, lakes, and air, not to mention the overall look and feel of our neighbourhoods — is considerable. In the suburbs, parking pads are standard, but in downtown neighbourhoods, many of which were built before cars ruled our roads, residents must apply for permission to put them in. Unfortunately, one person's gain in reliable parking is everyone else's loss. The more we pave over the city bit by bit, the less livable it becomes.
Since 2002, Ron has been working to stop the parking pad fad north of Selkirk from spreading along Muriel to the south. Here, like in many other neighbourhoods in Toronto, the availability of on-street parking fails to meet demands: there are currently more cars with permits than there are actually places to park.
"One of the myths going around is that [a front yard parking pad] frees up space because it means one extra car off the street," Ron says. In reality, it actually reduces the overall number of spaces. When a pad is built, what was once an on-street parking space becomes the entrance to the front yard pad, which of course, can't be blocked by a parked car. And unlike on-street parking, where homeowners can park at night and visitors can park during the day, parking pads remain empty when their owners take off with their car. The resulting loss of available parking space on the street, in turn, tempts others along the street to build parking pads (whether it means less spaces for everyone else or not) so that they'll always be guaranteed a space of their own.
Worse than the loss of parking spaces, however, is the effect parking pads have on our environment. More pavement means more rainwater running into our already over-burdened storm sewers after washing away the chemicals left on pavement by parked cars. While the rain that falls onto grass and gardens goes through a natural filtration process as it seeps through roots and soil, water that travels directly into storm sewers ultimately ends up in our lake, soiling our waterfront and making our beaches unswimmable.
Our urban canopy also takes a hit whenever a new parking pad is installed. "It's a permanent loss of space for tree planting," explains Janet McKay (no relation to Ron) from Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests (LEAF). "It also puts more stress on the trees that are there." Tree roots, which grow close to the ground's surface, face damage in the construction of front yard parking spaces. Because roots expand outwards up to two times the height of the tree, a driveway two or three houses down could affect the tree in front of your house, she explains.
Parking pads also contribute to drought, making trees more susceptible to pests and disease. "A lot of water hits hard surfaces and runs into sewers, so it never reaches tree roots," says Janet. "Drought is a number one problem for trees in the city but people don't really think about it because they don't wilt. You don't see it until it's too late."
Some councillors, such as Sandra Bussin (Beaches-East York), have placed temporary moratoriums on front yard parking until a new city-wide bylaw is put in place this year. The new rules will require a greater percentage of green space on front lawns and narrower strips of pavement, but enforcement may still prove to be a challenge. Janet points out that rules in the current bylaw pertaining to tree protection zones (areas around trees that are prohibited from being paved over) are often violated.
"You can walk down any street that's under some sort of construction and see tree protection zones being ignored," says Janet. "I've called the City many times giving an address and saying this is happening, but they just don't have the resources to be out there enforcing it."
Part of the reason many people move downtown in the first place is for the dense, green, tree-lined residential streets, whose front yards aren't dominated by cars and huge garages. Building a parking pad may seem like a quick, harmless fix to a frustrating problem, but one pad is often the sign of more to come, which creates problems for everyone down the road.