Rocking the boat on Tinto Street

The much discussed rocks on the Tinto St. boulevard are again coming before the committee of the whole this Monday (PDF), after staff was asked to prepare a report into the following options for the area and council opted to defer to allow more time to consult residents. The three options mentioned in the report were:

1. Remove the rocks at a cost of $2,000
2. 30 degree angle parking with 8 stalls (costing $70,000 with ‘turf stone’ or $21,000 using curb and gutter and asphalt.
3. Parallel parking with 15 stalls (costing $65,000 using ‘turf stone’ or $27,000 using curb and gutter and asphalt)

The problem, ostensibly, is parking. The rocks were originally placed there to solve the problem of people parking on the grassy boulevard, something the Mayor raised at a September 2008 Council meeting.  Fast forward to a June 2009 Committee of the Whole meeting (PDF) , where a resident approached council about said rocks, wondering why they had been placed there “without consultation with the residents”, in his words. His request triggered the creation of the report, which was given to council at a November 2009 meeting.

However, the story isn’t over. A different group of residents has created a petition to preserve the rocks, as they help preserve limited green space in the municipality. As of last night, the signatures were just shy of thirty, although it isn’t clear how many of them are direct residents of Tinto St or parents of students at the nearby Monterey Middle School.

I personally am in favour of retaining the rocks there. As Shannon Drew, the creator of the petition, pointed out to me in an email, Monterey has designated drop off zones on Monterey and Oliver, the former of which has had quite a bit of work done on it in recent years. Whatever your stance on the issue is, I encourage you to come out Monday night at 7:30pm. The meeting will be held at the Municipal Hall as per usual and with a light agenda save this issue, it should be a short night.