The vast amount of student's parking on the street is causing a headache for some residents near Bellerose Composite High School, two residents told city council during their regular June 3 meeting, leading them to ask that a parking permit be implemented to deter non-resident parking.
"This problem extends beyond mere inconvenience," Holly Cheverie told council members on Tuesday. "The high volume of parked student vehicles creates safety hazards, obstructs driveways, hampers emergency vehicles, and disrupts essential services."
Cheverie said the situation only worsens in the winter, and described some residents as having to help waste vehicles navigate around student cars and packed snow.
She also spoke about speeding issues and littering. Tara MacNeil, a resident in the area, said it's gotten so bad that she's considered moving.
"Some neighbours have approached students to talk about the speeding, the littering and boxing us in our driveways with mixed responses. More often than not rude responses," she said.
The city has introduced a resident parking permit program near Bellerose Composite High before. In 2017, the city first implemented a one year pilot program on streets like Dunfield Crescent. They asked that a similar program be implemented for the southern portion of Deane Crescent, where she said the problem is most exacerbated due to its proximity to the student walkway, and Dunsmuir Court Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
She said splitting Deane Crescent into north and south is necessary, as the issue does not extend to the northern portion of the roadway. The city's transportation manager Dean Schick said that Dunfield Crescent was also split into east and west.
The parking problem may be slightly increased by the construction taking place at Bellerose Composite High School. Equipment is taking up some student stalls, but Schick told councillors that the city hasn't formally gone out to assess the site to see the parking situation as its a private development. Although MacNeil said that the problem was already there before construction started in 2024.
"I've been living in that house for about 15 years now," MacNeil said. She said Cheverie moved in around six years ago and there were no issues. "It was like a light switch."
They attributed the sudden increase in parking issues to permit programs being implemented on Dunfield Crescent.
Schick said that a survey on the south side of Deane Crescent, the minimum amount of responses necessary to implement a parking permit program were met, but only 61 per cent of respondents were in support of such a program, three support votes shy of what they needed.
As far as a path forward, St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said although a decision to either waive the policy for this situation through a council motion would not be made during their June 3 meeting, their options were to focus on the south side of Deane Crescent for their survey or to wait for a review and change the policy or thresholds required.
The Gazette reached out to St. Albert Public Schools for comment, but a spokesperson did not respond by press time.
