CAMBRIDGE — Jim Montgomery can’t accept city plans to remove parking from in front of his Vine Street home.

Council expects to spend more than $500,000 this summer replacing underground pipes, curbs and asphalt along Vine and nearby Argyle street. The block of Vine in front of Montgomery’s house will look the same when it’s done. Except nobody will be allowed to park along the new asphalt, Montgomery said, because the street is inches too narrow under new city emergency access standards.

“It’s like hitting a fly with a hammer. Leave it alone,” he said.

Council gave the neighbourhood a choice: keep on street parking or give up a sidewalk on one side of the street to make room for it. Sidewalks trumped parking in the council vote, but it’s a decision that festers after the reconstruction of Argyle, Vine and nearby Waterloo Street were delayed to this year.

That gives Montgomery and neighbours another crack at keeping on-street parking. There was a city-hosted neighbourhood meeting a couple weeks ago at Preston High School, where residents were again polled on their feelings. The results go to a June 21 city council meeting.

Across the street, one of Montgomery’s neighbours — who refused to be identified in print — doesn’t agree with trying to reopen the parking issue. Accept the fact most residents want pedestrian safety first, forget about on-street parking and get on with construction this summer, he said.

Last year, city council set eight metres as the minimum curb-to-curb width to allow parking along one side of a street. (Two-side parking needs 10 metres).

The new road parking standards were pretty much the norm in new subdivisions. City staff convinced council to apply the rules as older streets are rebuilt, to ensure rescue crews always have room to safely work.

At the same time, provincial accessibility rules require wider sidewalks after reconstruction, eating up more space in the city road allowance. In older neighbourhoods, pushing sidewalks back to make room for on street parking usually means chopping down mature trees.

Fire trucks rarely travel along Vine, Montgomery said. The city’s biggest fire truck was used in a demonstration for councillors and residents. It’s a monster intended used to reach upper floors of apartment buildings, not two-storey houses like his. Smaller trucks are in closer fire stations, he said.

And even if a big fire truck had to come to Montgomery’s burning house and a car was in the way he said “just push it out of the way.”

Cambridge should look to Oakville, he said, which allows one-side parking on streets 7.5 metres wide — half a metre narrower than Vine.

That’s true, but it’s a “borderline” situation, said Dave Bloomer, that town’s engineering manager.

When old Oakville streets are reconstructed, the fire department and road officials look block by block at parking and emergency access needs. If there’s a church, for example, firefighters want parking banned in front to ensure big ladder trucks always have room to work.

Nor is there a city-wide standard in Brantford. The fire department reviews each road project and city officials tell residents they must not interfere with a four-metre clearway if the want to keep their parking.

Kitchener sets a nine-metre minimum road width to permit one-side parking along one side. When a street is rebuilt, officials try to find more space back of the curbs when widening the street. If there’s no room, parking stays.

Cambridge Coun. Karl Kiefer held his nose when he voted for no parking on Vine a year ago. He didn’t want to open the city to lawsuits for not enforcing rules ensuring emergency access to all.

After pressure from residents in his Preston ward, he’s started the process for a reconsideration vote June 21. He won’t push the issue until after he sees the latest neighbourhood survey results and a city staff review of how other cities deal with on street parking.

“If I had a magic wand and could satisfy everyone, I would do that. I’m not sure that’s possible,” Kiefer said.

Allowing parking on Vine would surely anger residents of nearby Cherry Hill, who lost their parking last year after that short street was torn up. Nor would it sit well with Brook Street in Galt, where residents just lost a fight to keep parking on both sides of their dead-end street.

Residents of more streets in old Preston will face the same parking turmoil as roads are rebuilt, Montgomery said.

“This is going to happen on the next street over, and the next street, and the next street.”