Charlottetown resident feels 'isolated' after city bans on-street parking along Elena Court

When Laura Hurry first moved to Elena Court in Charlottetown's East Royalty neighbourhood a decade ago, parking was allowed on both sides of the street.

The cul-de-sac has since seen several more apartment buildings built alongside the one where Hurry lives. That led the City of Charlottetown to widen the street and limit parking to just one side of it.

But a few months ago, Hurry noticed new signs had gone up, this time banning on-street parking altogether.

"Nobody can come and visit now. There's nowhere to park unless they want to walk a couple of blocks," she said.

Hurry suffered a fall last spring and needed to be hospitalized.

"When I got home, I needed home care, friends, Meals on Wheels to help me out, and there wasn't a problem because they could park on the street," she explained. "Now, that's not an option, so it worries me tremendously."

A Google map showing where Elena Court is, just west of St. Peters Road off Norwood Road in East Royalty. (Google)

Hurry has one parking spot assigned to her for a personal vehicle, but her building has no parking spaces for visitors. She said she's reached out to the city about the issue but hasn't gotten a response. She even proposed a possible solution — to allow daytime parking only on the street.

"Most of those cars that are on the street would be gone to work, so visitors or home care could come in the daytime," she says. "Then the city would be allowed to come in and do their snow plowing in the evening. To me, that was a win-win for everybody."

In an email to CBC News, a spokesperson for the City of Charlottetown says there have been long-standing concerns with parking on Elena Court, including access for emergency vehicles.

The spokesperson said the city has received many complaints over the years about vehicle congestion, access to buildings, and damage to infrastructure.

"In an attempt to address these challenges, the city first restricted parking to one side of the street and around the bulb of the cul-de-sac," the statement said.

"Unfortunately, this approach was not successful in mitigating parking concerns and in the interest of public safety the city has eliminated all on-street parking on Elena Court."

Residents see both sides

Others living at Elena Court who spoke with CBC News gave mixed opinions on the matter. Resident Stan MacPhee said the current situation is better than it used to be.

"It's good for plow operators in the wintertime. When they're plowing the snow, they can get it all the way back, but when the cars are parked on the street, they have to go around the cars."

The city says it tried to allow parking on just one side of the road, but that still posed a public safety risk. (Laura Meader/CBC)

Tuyet (Sunny) Tran has owned a building at 16 Elena Court for almost four years. She said the new rules have made the street safer.

"It looked not really nice, not organized [before]," she said. "And for safety in the nighttime, any emergency, we can get in and get out easier."

But Hurry is still worried.

"They keep promoting seniors being independent and not isolated and this has really isolated me even more," she said.

In Charlottetown, it's the responsibility of property owners to ensure there's adequate parking space. But Hurry said residents should have been consulted before the city banned parking on Elena Court.

"I think it's everybody's responsibility, from the city when they're issuing permits to the developers when they're building, to the landlords when they're leasing the units, that they say there's only parking for one or for two," she said.

While she hopes she doesn't need in-home care again in the future, she said the lack of parking will affect her ability to have friends and relatives visit.

"I have friends that would bring me groceries because I couldn't drive or I couldn't lift them, and there's nowhere for them to come even to pop in for 15 minutes," she said. "So you feel very much alone and forgotten about."