Thursday, September 26, 2024
CHELAN – Capacity and enforcement. Those two topics brought eight Lakeside residents to city council chambers on Sept. 24, to request that the city address long unresolved issues of parking congestion, over capacity, and lack of enforcement at Lakeside Park.
Located at 2230 Terrace Avenue, Lakeside Park is described in the city’s website, cityofchelan.us, as a 10-acre passive park in the historic Lakeside community. Park amenities include:
The description does not include maximum user capacity numbers.
Tammy Hauge described parking problems she experiences.
“My neighborhood felt like a massive parking lot everywhere I looked,” said Hauge. “It feels like a Chelan Man every weekend in my neighborhood, it feels so intense.”
Hauge says the situation highlights for her a need for additional public access.
Stan Morse said the demand for parking on narrow streets around Lakeside Park leaves little or no room for a fire engine to drive on the street and make the turn around the corner. Morse made the comparison of Lakeside to Paradise, California, where 85 people died trying to escape a 2018 wildfire by the only available exit route.
Morse said insurance companies are taking note of the growing risk.
“My insurance was canceled earlier this year because the underwriter found that I lived in a dangerous fire zone,” said Morse. “I found a replacement policy, but it cost twice as much.:”
Janet Heg and her husband bought a house in Lakeside in 2005 as a haven of peace and quiet. That is until 2020, during the first months of the COVID pandemic, when overcrowding at Lakeside Park got out of control.
“There were cars everywhere,” recalled Heg. “When I went into town on a weekend the traffic was so bad I just did not get home.”
Heg said that with the overcrowding, parking, barbecues, and unleashed dogs, she no longer feels comfortable taking her grandchildren to Lakeside Park during a summer weekend.
Jackie DePaoli, who grew up in the Lakeside area said she never imagined a little park would change so much.
“From our patio, we have observed a worsening of what can only be described as living in the middle of a busy, congested, unmonitored highway,” said DePaoli. “And I do mean highway; I don’t mean street; it’s not a street, not in the summer.”
“Let me be clear,” said DePaoli. “I am asking the city to establish a capacity for Lakeside Park because therein lies the problem.”
Vicki Martz said she has one of the most “active and visible” sites to “view the chaotic and destructive activity that is visited on the Lakeside community every weekend in the summers.”
Martz addressed the city council on July 9 regarding parking congestion issues and has written numerous letters to the city requesting intervention. She defined the difference between traditional tourists and day campers.
“Day campers come, and they bring garden carts and baby carriages full of food and double, full sized propane tanks and barbecues,” said Martz. “They come at five o’clock in the morning, they unload, and they leave at 11p.m.”
That early influx sets the stage for the struggle later arrivals will face finding parking for the rest of the day.
Martz cited a promised August 6 meeting with the city that did not take place.
“We are requesting that we have discourse immediately,” Martz concluded.
Dave Copeland asked if Chelan has defined capacity for its parks, established park hours, dog areas, and similar limitations.
Copeland said that based on his experiences, the posted speed limits and other signs, such as “No Jumping” from the bridge, are merely suggestions for compliance absent any enforcement.
“The news is out, and people are discovering Chelan,” said Copeland. “I think we need to rein in instead of kicking the can down the road.”
Barry DePaoli, a 22-year Lakeside resident, shared his Friends of Lakeside figures.
“Based on diligent observation and our low-tech estimates of those counting, we estimate that there are between 2,500 and 3,500 people in the park on most summer weekends,” said DePaoli. “Numbers like that have brought Lakeside Park to the breaking point.”
DePaoli cited the “crush of parking and excess traffic” as potential neighborhood dangers.
“When you add open use of alcohol, 50-plus barbecues and canopy tents, 40 dogs, serious boating infractions in swim areas, poor signage, grossly inadequate bathroom facilities, severely compromised access for fire and emergency vehicles, and zero – zero – enforcement of any rules, the only way to describe summer weekends in Lakeside as ‘out of control,’” said DePaoli.
Citing altercations and growing tensions between Lakeside residents and park visitors, DePaoli stressed: “The residents of Lakeside cannot go another summer without action from the city.
“We are headed for disaster, and we all know that disasters occur when there are multiple failures at several levels,” said DePaoli. “We have reached an inflection point that demands our full attention.”
DePaoli suggested two requests from the Friends of Lakeside group:
Beth Bettis said she is concerned not only with the traffic that goes around and around at Lakeside Park but also with the speed at which travels.
We have grandchildren, five-year-olds, that almost got hit this summer,” said Bettis. “That, to me, needs to be jumped on.”
Bettis asked if the city has considered backup reservations like many national parks use. She also suggesting a system for checking cars to go along with fees for parking.
Lakeside Park has been awarded a renovation grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and is currently seeking a code enforcement officer to add to the city staff.
Mike Maltais 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media
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