Innisfil Lets Residents Rent Out Their Driveways with Rover Parking App

The mobile app Rover allows users to rent out their driveways for vehicles to park, and a new pilot project has landed with the Town of Innisfil, Ontario, located on the western shore of Lake Simcoe. This is the first time a town has partnered with Toronto-based Rover.

According to Innisfil Mayor, Lynn Dollin, she told CBC News, “Some of our parks have public parking, but it’s limited,” adding “We also have a great deal of winter snow in our municipality and we don’t allow on-street parking in the winter.”

Rover allows residents to set availability and pricing for the extra spots in their driveway, similar to Uber. Those looking for parking use the Rover app to book and pay for a spot within the app, based on where they’re searching.

Innisfil Beach Park also now has two Rover parking spaces, available to be booked via the app, launched last week.

Other municipal spots available through Rover—and indicated with signage include:

• 980 Emily Street
• 316 Neilly Road
• 1160 Quarry Drive

Dollin added the Rover partnership at the beach is to offer an alternative parking option, instead of seeing visitors park at no parking areas. Summer and winter are popular times at the beach for recreation, so the goal is to ensure road access is available.

Parking spots will be vetted by Rover and the town’s Zoning Administrator, to ensure legal spots are being rented and not lawns. Private residential spots are capped at $3/hour, with daily rates at $9 and nightly rates at $7.

Also coming soon, are Rover docks, to allow extra spaces at marinas to be rented out.

Innisfil city council has been known for testing innovation in the town, such as its transit experiment with Uber launched back in 2017.