If Tiny council is eyeing up parking spots, it’s for a good reason.

A recommendation from the accessibility advisory committee (AAC) made its way to Tiny committee of the whole recently, directing staff to investigate parking lot capacity at the Township of Tiny Community Centre.

“Under AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005) legislation, we are required to have three per cent of our parking spaces be accessibility spaces,” said Deputy Mayor Sean Miskimins who sits on the AAC as the council representative.

Public works director Tim Leitch informed council that criteria for the spots was examined by staff to come up with a number.

“We figured probably four or five spots,” replied Leitch. “We typically like to put in ‘Type A’ which are vans of that size, and we’d like to be able to locate them across the front.

“There’s only currently one there now, so we’re not compliant from that standpoint. In part of the accessibility review that we did, we’re in favour of increasing those numbers,” Leitch added.

The AAC recommendation raised interest from Coun. Kelly Helowka who noted that Lafontaine Park also had only one accessible parking spot.

“I would like to increase it from three per cent to five per cent,” suggested Helowka. “We have an aging population; our average age is well over 55, and as more and more people move up here over time, I think more spots should be available to those people.”

While a revised motion was being created for council, Miskimins took a moment to include that the AODA could undergo a future revision which would align with Helowka’s suggestion with cost savings to be had.

“If we’re ahead of the game, that could end up saving us in the long run from having to be reactive – we’re now proactive,” Miskimins declared.

More revisions were tacked on as Helowka and meeting chair Coun. Steffen Walma bantered regarding “all non-compliant” parking spaces to be reviewed for consideration.

The committee of the whole directed staff to add the additional TTCC spaces for accessibility, but also to have staff explore all municipal spaces for similar alterations.

Archives of council meetings are available to view on Tiny township’s YouTube channel.

Derek Howard, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, MidlandToday.ca