An issue that's been dividing neighbours for more than a decade will be back on the agenda at city hall next month: Legal versus illegal front yard parking pads.

A report that would lay the groundwork for a city-wide amnesty, affecting about 8,000 households that are currently using illegal parking pads is ready to be discussed by the public works and infrastructure committee, CBC Toronto has learned.

The report was requested last summer by Coun. Mary Margaret McMahon, who represents Ward 32, Beaches-East York.

She said places to park are scarce in Toronto. And the city should be helping solve the problem, not making it worse.

Homeowners with parking pads that bear this city-issued permit pay $270 a year. Illegal pad owners pay nothing, which some city councillors hope to change with an amnesty. (Mike Smee/CBC News)

"For me it's an equity issue," she told CBC Toronto. "It's not fair that we have 8,000 parking pads in the city of Toronto that people don't have to pay for right now, while others do."

Currently, owners of legal pads pay the city an annual fee of about $270 a year. Those legal pads are identified by a small, white, city-issued plaque on the owner's porch. Although those without the plaque could be fined, or ordered to remove their pads, city staff say they'll only respond to a location if there's a specific complaint.

But some councillors are dead set against an amnesty. In fact, Coun. Mike Layton believes those who are living with illegal pads ought to be forced to rip them out.

"The reality is that it's more valuable to us as an open space, as green space, than it is as a parking spot," he said this week. "They need to be restored to the function they did before they were paved over."

Coun. Mary Margaret McMahon asked for a feasibility study on an amnesty for illegal parking pad owners last summer. That report is now complete, but it's unclear when councillors will get an opportunity to view it before their terms end this fall. (Robert Krbavac/CBC News)

McMahon and Coun. Stephen Holyday, who's vice chair of the public works committee, argue that forcing otherwise law abiding citizens to remove the pads would be counterproductive.

"You have to recognize that people have to live their lives — they've got cars," Holyday said. "They've had this pad in place for years. Life has to go on. Maybe there's a way to correct this situation, to start collecting money, to make it a fairer system."

'How can I justify that?'

McMahon said the fact that some homeowners pay the fee, while their neighbours with unauthorized pads do not, has long been a bone of contention among her constituents.

"One neighbour is paying each year an annual fee, and the other neighbour is not." she said. "How can I justify that to my residents?"

But Coun. Mike Layton said allowing the illegal pads to exist is the same as allowing people to build extensions onto their houses without city approvals.

"We shouldn't be giving people a benefit for something that they got through breaking a bylaw," he said.

The most common reason for barring pads expressed by councillors is that paved front yards impede drainage, and rainwater routinely winds up flooding basements.

A staff report from 2015 states the city plans to spend $1.6 billion dollars mitigating basement flooding over the next 10 years.

Strings attached

But McMahon says one of the stipulations for legalizing pads would be that they be made out of permeable materials.

The report from staff will also suggest that, if an amnesty is approved by the public works committee, there be other strings attached:

"We don't allow for double-car parking pads, so you'd have to shave it down to a single vehicle pad. You would need to pay the fees you haven't been paying for, and an application fee probably, and tree planting."

Coun. Mike Layton says homeowners who have illegal parking pads should not be given an amnesty, because the pads hinder rainwater drainage, among other reasons. (John Lesavage/CBC News)

And before he agrees to pass an amnesty motion along to city council, Holyday said he'd add a stipulation: That homeowners who are granted an amnesty must also agree to remove their pads when they sell the house.

He said a parking pad — legal or illegal — can boost a home's value by tens of thousands of dollars.

Front yard parking pads have been banned in most parts of downtown since 2007, except in a few special circumstances.

Details still to come

McMahon said she was inspired to call for a staff report on legalizing the rogue pads last summer, as council moved toward closing all the loopholes and banning new pads city wide.

It's still unclear when the details of the report will be made public. The issue of front yard parking pads will be raised at the May 8 meeting of the public works committee, city staff confirmed. But they said a full report isn't due until the next term of council.

However, McMahon said she's anxious to see the issue resolved this spring.