Failure to launch

Steel pegs and flags demarcate a turtle’s nest amid trucks and trailers sharing the beach in Wellington.

Slim space and bylaw confusion cause boat launch bickering

Wellington’s natural summer state is tourism. Boasting a harbour, marina and a beach, many visiting tourists come equipped with a boat or two.

While an influx in popularity has caused traffic and parking woes in the centre of the village, to the east, the southern stub of Belleville Road has its own set of problems.

Three businesses thrive there. On the west side, the parking lot is shared a restaurant and a variety store, with a County-owned right of way and public washrooms in between.

On the east side, the Reel Thing handles the traffic from the boat launch and the marina, boaters buying gas or coming to weigh in for various fishing derbies, and boaters just stopping in to send their boats into the water.

The boat trailers are awkward on the narrow road. Pulling in and turning around often means crossing onto the neighbouring parking lot, causing friction and frustration among the businesses. And once the boats are launched there’s another dilemma: what to do with those long, awkward trucks and trailers.

Some obey the signs and drive their cars up to the nearby arena, where there is designated parking. It’s a two-block walk back to the boat launch from there. Some drive around and park on the hill at the end of the beach. Their fellow boaters can dock there and pick them up.

This has caused angst among conservationists, concerned about the health of the plants that keep the sand from eroding under the traffic, and concerned about the turtles, who come to the beach to lay eggs on that hill. One section has been cordoned off so that a tire doesn’t unintentionally crush those eggs.

Some boat ramp users, despite warnings, park in the neighbouring parking lot, blocking spots for customers, or park on the road where there are no parking signs. Despite blocking the road, violators are very rarely fined.

Chief bylaw officer Andy Harrison says that while parking rules are clear on Belleville Road, there is too much ambiguity at the beach for enforcement. Cars may not park on the beach overnight, but even Harrison doesn’t know whether the County’s bylaws allow or prohibit parking on that hill.

Across at the marina, Reel Thing owner Wendy Martin is responsible for overseeing launch fee payments— she says it is mainly on an honour system. But although she makes every effort to encourage boaters to park where they are allowed, or at the very least on her private property, she says it’s not her responsibility to police traffic.

“I have a business to run,” says Martin. “I can’t be out there enforcing bylaws.”