Borderlands

Where do responsibilities lie between Sandbanks Park and the County?

Another lion’s share of summer has passed and for the businesses surrounding Sandbanks Provincial Park, the frustrations on parking and overcrowding keep building. This season saw some of the largest lineups to get into the park. There were days this season where Sandbanks reached capacity before 11 a.m., forcing visitors to wait in line for hours outside the gates. The lineups get so long that they can reach kilometres down the road. Families and beachgoers who may have driven an hour or two to get here, aren’t going to turn around and go home. They will sit for an hour or two waiting for space to open up. Unfortunately, these traffic jams are hurting the local businesses in the area, as no cars can get through to visit their storefronts. The cars in line don’t want to lose their spot, and cars not going to Sandbanks will take alternate routes because they can’t get through. It’s a problem that both the County and the Provincial Park have known about for years, but because it’s on the fringe of both properties, neither one is stepping in to address the issue. The park claims it can’t be responsible for anything outside its property lines, and the County says that the park must increase its parking infrastructure to ease the traffic issues.

Cliff Foster is at the centre of the issues, as his Fosterholms Farm stand sits right on the corner of Sandbanks’ main intersection. It is the epicentre of issues when the park is at capacity. Foster wants someone to take responsibility for the traffic jams and address the issue before it affects his business any further.

“This traffic issue has been a problem for in excess of 10 years. I’ve talked to the superintendent about the issues here and the fact that we lose control of our property. It’s a short season and we lose money every time there is a traffic jam. But they don’t seem to care about anything outside the park’s boundaries,” says Foster.

Foster estimates that when the traffic backs up, it costs his business a minimum of $1,000 a day in revenue because no one is getting out of line to buy at their stand. There was one incident in early July where the traffic started at 10 a.m. and lasted well into the evening and the farm stand was empty that whole day. So, to combat the issue, Foster started charging people to park in his parking lot. He’s doing it almost out of necessity because people will just park their cars there anyway and leave them. This way, the parking revenue can at least make up for some of the lost revenue from the farm stand. But the park started banning people from walking into the park around the time that Foster started charging for parking. Another interesting point about the boundary between the County and Sandbanks is that earlier on the summer, the Wardens were issuing tickets for anyone parked alongside of the highway and walking into the park. It is not unusual for Wardens to be deputized, but odd that they will go outside their boundaries to issue a ticket on behalf of the County, and won’t help in picking up any garbage in those areas because it’s not their jurisdiction.

Garbage is one example that Foster brings up as a major issue. He claims that when people leave the park, they are just tossing things out as they go. He and his staff have seen it happen numerous times. When Foster went to address the issue with the park, the representatives said that the garbage was a County problem, not theirs. Another issue that has become prevalent over the last few years is evicted campers. If the wardens of the park have a problem with a person or persons in the park, they take their belongings, drag them to the edge of the park and leave them with their stuff right at the intersection.

“So, what do you think those visitors do when they get kicked out? They come over and bother my farm stand. I’ve had my whole staff express concerns about this issue. The park doesn’t care as long as the problem is off their property. Who gets to deal with the people they evict? We do,” says Foster.

Foster gives an example of a group who were kicked out this season, and were obviously in an altered state. The group wandered over to the farm stand and started lying down on the gravel where the cars park. Foster’s farm stand is staffed with young girls most of the time, ages 15-18, and are not well equipped to deal with things of this nature. The park claims that the group is no longer their responsibility because they are off its property.

Peter Morch owns the Outer Banks store which is on the opposite side of the intersection to where Foster has his farm stand. Morch has also seen a decline in business when the cars are backed up and thinks that this is something that no one paying attention to. Morch believes the park is an economic engine. He has seen from chatting with his pizza business customers that people are staying in hotels as far as 30 or 40 minutes away to come and hang out at Sandbanks for the day. The park is creating business for the entire region.

“The issues lie when there is no communication that allows people to know the status of Sandbanks Park and whether it’s full or not when they get off the 401. When none of the ingresses and egresses to the County have info on the park’s status then the congestion becomes an issue that explodes, and people become really frustrated,” says Morch.

Both Morch and Foster have noticed a significant drop in police presence at the park’s entrance, where there used to be an OPP officer regularly directing traffic. Foster and Morch say that presence has not been felt this season. According to Sergeant John Hatch, nothing has changed, and the OPP come when they are called on to help by the park.

Robin Reilly, Superintendent of the Sandbanks Provincial Park had no comment regarding issues outside the park, but did mention that to help ease congestion, an entire new portion of campground was opened this season and that the public message they are sending out about arriving early to the park seems to be helping. Reilly noticed no increase in rowdiness and mentioned that so many nice days in a row meant that people weren’t cramming to get into the park on a particular day which made for a more even distribution of people throughout the day.

Whatever the solution, Foster is hoping it is addressed before another season starts and the problems continue to mount. The businesses like Fosterholm’s have been around for longer than the park and have already made significant adjustments to their businesses. Information for visitors seems to be a key piece of the puzzle.