Residents of the Broadwell Road area are concerned about the safety of people who use the north entrance of Duck Creek Park.
A group of neighbours from the area brought the issue to the Parks and Recreation Commission at their meeting in March. Lindsey Neville lives across the street from the entrance to Duck Creek Park and presented to the board on the issue.
“Both myself and immediate neighbours are very concerned about the safety issues posed by insufficient parking, and consequent dangerous street parking,” he said to the commission.
Users of the park have a small parking lot on Broadwell Road that can fit two to three cars. Neville said that his measurements of the parking lot were 14 feet by 21 feet. The roadway into the park also functions as the emergency access to the park, as well as a driveway access for a nearby property. One of the stall areas in the lot has been eroded, and a deep hole at the edge makes it a difficult place to park a medium- to large-sized vehicle.
Sue Kernaghan owns the property beside the park access. She explained the lot is often filled on Saturdays and in the busy season, which forces other visitors to park on the road.
“The entrance . . . is right at the crux of a steep curve that is also on a down slope,” she said. “Cars go down really fast and they can’t see who’s coming. At the same time, there are a great many people coming in and out of the parking lot, as well as a lot of people parking on the wrong side of the street, forcing cars to go into the wrong lane. It’s an accident waiting to happen.”
Suggested solutions to PARC from Neville included either new “no parking signs” on the road, or a closure of the Broadwell parking area, using it instead as a PARC vehicle staging area with more parking on the Sunset Drive side.
“The main thing is that people just need to be aware that it’s a blind corner and not to block traffic. If the parking lot is full, find somewhere else,” Kernaghan said. “We can see people coming in and out of there. There’s a surprising amount of traffic, because the Channel Ridge development is up there and this is the main road out.”
PARC received a number of emails from residents of the area after the March meeting. The issue was discussed further during the April meeting. Since any updates to the area have not been planned or budgeted for, the commission moved to look at the parking at Duck Creek Park during their capital planning session in June. The commission will also work with the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to reduce their liability in the area.
For more on this story, see the May 8, 2019 issue of the Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, or subscribe online.