Two restaurants, the Inn at Lake on the Mountain and the Miller House, will be shutting their doors due to the strain new county parking by-laws have put on the businesses.
Danielle Chretien, a member of the family that owns and operates the restaurants, confirmed to Quinte News that the restaurants will close at a date to be determined.
In late April the county officially put in place a list of more harsh parking regulations for a number of places in the county, including County Road 7 at Lake on the Mountain.
The new rules restricted roadside parking on both sides of the road between 230 County Road 7 and 326 County Road 7 in front of the Lake on the Mountain resort. Anyone caught in violation of the rules is subject to a $400 fine.
Chretien says that the roadside parking space has been essential to their business for all of its 30 year existence.
The resort does have its own parking lot, however it is also a short walk away and can only accommodate about 45 vehicles. Chretien says that the roadside parking allowed approximately 50 extra parking spaces for people to visit the restaurants.
While one of the reasons behind the parking restrictions was concerns of speeding through the area, Chretien disagrees with the explanation.
“They know, and the county I’m pretty sure is aware, that having roadside parking slows down traffic through the area. It’s kind of just a proven fact – when cars are parked on the side of the road, vehicles tend to travel a little bit slower through the area because they’re looking out for people crossing the roads and the possibility of them opening up their doors.”
Since the by-law took effect Chretien says that it has put a strain on their business that made continuing operations “unviable.”
“Many, many of our customers have gotten $400 tickets. People don’t know where to park. We have people walking down the road with canes, walkers from the residential area to our place. The people that park in our parking lot still have to, because it is a little bit of a hike away, they still have to walk quite a distance. Our customers are all walks of life, all ages. We do have a fairly large local elderly clientele with accessibility issues and this has definitely impacted them.”
The combination of these problems led the family to decided to close down the businesses.
She called the decision by Prince Edward County council to move forward with the by-law that led them to closing “a slap in the face” and said that the decision to close was not made lightly.
Chretien said they do not have a specific date for the closure of the restaurants yet.
