Council has approved a three-hour, downtown parking limit on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 12, 2026 • Town of Tillsonburg customer service building. FILE Council has approved a three-hour parking limit in the downtown on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A two-hour limit was intended to encourage vehicle turnover and maintain parking availability for short-term visitors. The restrictions apply Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., excluding Sundays and statutory holidays. In October 2025, Coun. Chris Rosehart introduced a resolution for staff to investigate removing the limit downtown on Saturdays. In January, the Downtown Tillsonburg BIA encouraged council to maintain the two-hour limit to further “facilitate short-term visits to downtown businesses.” “Without time limits, prime on-street spaces are at risk of being monopolized by long-stay vehicles, reducing access for customers and directly impacting sales,” Mark Renaud, executive director of the BIA, wrote to the group. The Tillsonburg District Chamber of Commerce supported nixing the two-hour limit. They felt the move would encourage visitors to remain in Tillsonburg longer, improve the visitor experience, and strengthen Tillsonburg’s image as a welcoming and convenient destination. This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Bylaw officers conducted targeted two-hour parking patrols on Saturdays throughout November 2025. Patrols occurred multiple times per day to capture a range of downtown conditions. A total of 34 parking tickets were issued, while several patrols resulted in few or no tickets despite enforcement being completed. “A significant number of empty spaces were observed across all monitored streets and municipal parking lots during patrols,” said a report from Geno Vanhaelewyn, the town’s chief building official. “No observed capacity constraints. At no point were on-street or municipal parking lots observed to be at or near full capacity.” From August 2024 to November 2025, staff reported 249 tickets given across 70 Saturdays, approximately 3.6 tickets per Saturday. “Historical data indicates that Saturday parking violations have remained relatively low, with enforcement volumes fluctuating due to seasonal factors and patrol availability,” Vanhaelewyn’s report continued. This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Nearby municipalities that also have parking limits on Saturdays include St. Thomas, Woodstock and Brantford, while Norfolk and Elgin are seasonal. The most recent visitor information from the Canadian Urban Institute indicates that, in 2024, Downtown Tillsonburg recorded 211,400 unique visitors and 7.8 million total visits — an average of 37.1 visits per visitor. “This data confirms that downtown Tillsonburg traffic is driven by repeat, routine trips rather than episodic destination demand, i.e. visitors,” the council report noted. “Saturday stands out as the strongest individual day (16 per cent of total visits), but overall demand remains rooted in routine time-efficient trips.” The report said that Tillsonburg’s challenge is not attracting people, it’s giving them enough reasons to stay. “The data consistently points to a downtown area with strong loyalty, stable demand, and meaningful spending capacity that is constrained by an under-layered business mix,” Vanhaelewyn wrote. “By focusing on food-led recruitment, small-format experiences, retail clustering, and improved street-level performance, Downtown Tillsonburg can unlock significant economic value from demand that already exists — strengthening downtown as both a daily service centre and a place people choose to linger.” This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. “After a year, we could always come back if there’s a problem and revert back to two hours,” Deputy Mayor David Beres pointed out. Before tabling the motion, Beres requested that staff report back to council in a year to provide an update on numbers involving three-hour parking on Saturdays. Updated anti-harassment policy passes Council has officially adopted a new anti-harassment policy targeting public intimidation of staff and officials. The policy “governs public conduct, including behaviour that is harassing, intimidating, disruptive, or otherwise inappropriate,” according to a report from Laura Pickersgill, acting deputy clerk. Late last year, council directed staff to review the town’s existing policy framework to determine whether revisions were necessary to more clearly address expectations for respectful conduct toward both municipal staff and members of council. Staff did not see a need to overhaul the document, but rather “improve clarity . . . by explicitly including members of council within its scope”, Pickersgill’s report stated. This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The policy applies to Tillsonburg’s various properties, including indoor and outdoor facilities, and activities conducted on all town land. The updated version now includes when council members are “attending, participating in, or conducting municipal business, including but not limited to council and committee meetings, public meetings, town-organized events, site visits, and any interactions with members of the public, staff, volunteers, or stakeholders that occur on town property or are connected to their role as an elected official. “This targeted revision strengthens clarity, transparency, and public understanding while maintaining a single, consistent approach to managing inappropriate public conduct,” Pickersgill wrote. The updated document will be posted to the town’s website. Stacked townhouse on Walnut Drive deferred Council has deferred a 16-unit stacked townhouse development on Walnut Drive. An application to amend the town’s official plan designation to “medium-density residential’ to permit the proposed development came to the group during a May 11 meeting. 7 This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The decision to defer was prompted by water concerns. A report regarding the town’s water capacity is due to council later in May or June, at which time the group can make a determination on the project. In a council report, Amy Hartley, development planner, noted that Oxford County public works has made the developer aware that water servicing capacity in town is limited. “At the time of this official plan amendment application, there is sufficient water servicing capacity available for the proposed development and, with the approval of this development, the capacity within the Tillsonburg drinking water system would be fully allocated,” the report noted. “Further, the applicant should be aware that the approval of this official plan amendment does not constitute or imply the reservation or allocation of water servicing capacity.” The 1.5-storey building is proposed in the Oak Park Estates subdivision development and sits on 0.23 hectares (0.57 acres). Surrounding land uses include existing low-density residential development consisting primarily of single detached dwellings, some semi-detached dwellings located to the east. 8 This has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A traffic-impact brief concluded that building will add eight to nine total trips within the area during peak hours. “The additional trips will not require any external road network improvements, and the intersection has significant reserve capacity until 2032,” Hartley wrote. “The proposal will increase the housing supply to help address the full range of housing needs and will assist the town with providing and building homes that respond to changing market needs and local demand, to support a diverse and growing population and workforce in the town and broader region,” the report continued. The building would include 22 parking spaces, a rate of 1.25 spaces per unit, which includes one barrier-free parking space. 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