Re: “Easy money for Surrey,” Letters, The Leader, Sept. 5.
I too live in a “nice” part of Cloverdale. Actually it was nice, but seven years later, it is now just a congested mess of parking and inconsiderate neighbours.
The letter writer comments that she should be able to rent a spot in front of her home to park. Why can she not park in her garage? That is what a garage is for in this area of Cloverdale (East Clayton) – parking.
The number-one problem is the city not enforcing the suite or multiple suite bylaws and the law that one parking spot must be provided for tenants on the properties in East Clayton.
And so it goes like this: Owners fill their basements with tenants, their garages with junk they don’t use, therefore they have to park their cars on the street – all of them.
And if they have an outdoor spot at the rear of their lot, they usually selfishly use it for themselves when it should be for their tenants. Their tenants are left to park on the streets.
People like myself that do not have a suite and that use their two-car garage for what it is for – parking cars – are the ones left to suffer if we have more than two cars.
If we want to park in front of our home it is a battle to do so in the evenings and on weekends, which is ridiculous.
The city should allot one parking spot in front of each owner’s home to the owner, be it for their own use or for their visitors, just as they do in White Rock.
Tenants of illegal multiple suites or suites that are not following the suite parking bylaw should not be allowed to take parking away from owners that pay the appropriate taxes.
The city needs to enforce the suite bylaws and fix the parking mess they have let go on for so long here in East Clayton.
C. Litonjua
