Dear Mr.Copeman

Dear Mr.Copeman,

We the Riverains are very disappointed, but we will remain steadfastly unwilling to concede on something that we are entitled to as taxpayers just as others are in many other boroughs with major institutions! Why this resistance from our borough for this same right? There are also strictly residential streets that are not surrounded by major institutions for example in Outremont and in Westmount as well as in Cote St-Luc and Town of Mont- Royal that have implemented the 2HR parking for their visitors!

Our push to be accorded our right as long time residents who signed the petition (many from the 1970’s and a few from before the hospital was even built) to park for free (for our short term visitors that include family, friends, nurse, contractor and caregiver) and with permits on our streets with designated 2HR ZONES from Monday to Friday and no restrictions 24/7 in the resident parking zone #48 will amplify in about a year if these propositions are not recognized and accepted by our mayor and his team! The recent street parking analysis (that show 85% of free on street parking is taken up by non residents working or visiting St-Justine and or HEC) done by our borough (department de circulation) clearly shows that there is a huge daytime parking problem for residents that opt not to purchase a #48 permit and or for their short term visitors! This is what we have been trying to show our borough for over 6 years now, through petitions, photos and debates but they chose to manipulate their promisses and show great resistance to the 2HR maxparking zones.

Furthermore we are not accepting the ridiculous fee of $150 so our visitors can park long-term with no restrictions year long while the employees of St-Justine get «carte blanche» to invade all free parking on our public streets that residents are also entitled to!

The already very difficult daytime parking situation will only be exacerbated when the new St-Justine hospital expansion is in operation with many more vehicles invading the free street parking as well as the ongoing illegal parking in permit zone 48 (that take up many spots) and illegally blocking our driveways!

Our proposals:
- for the streets near the hospital, Soisson (between Darlington and Hudson), Brighton, Northmount, Hudson (between Cote St Catherine and Linton) Ellendale (between Decelles and McShane) and Dolbeau, Souart, implement 6-8 spots on each of these streets with 2HR zone restrictions from Monday to Friday or give out 2HR free short term passes (similar to TMR and Hampstead) that visitors can place on their rear view mirror and park in the #48 permit zones for only 2hrs. These passes would be available for free to residents only on demand.

- on those same streets close to the hospital again (Soisson, Northmount, Brighton, Hudson, McShane, Dolbeau, Souart and Ellendale) in the # 48 permit zone area, the residents shouldn’t have any restrictions and all these zones should be available 24/7 or 9am

to 23h. We were promises at our meeting with mayor Copeman close to a year ago that these hours would be synchronized to all read the same 9 am to 23 h, but the promisse was never kept as was the 70% resident permit parking zones #48

We hope and pray now that our borough has the analysis of their study that clearly shows 85% of free street parking is taken up by non-residents, there will be changes and our long time cry for short term parking for our daytimes visitors will be respected.

Peter Koziris
(representing the Riverains around St-Justine)