A crackdown on illegal parking and alcohol consumption at Thetis Lake Regional Park seems to be having an impact.
View Royal Fire Chief Paul Hurst said his department has had no calls for service to the lake since fire, police and Capital Regional District officials met two weeks ago and agreed to increase patrols.
“We’re not out of the summer yet and it’s still hot, but that’s encouraging that we haven’t had any calls for service for falls or rescues or alcohol-related issues,” he said. “So a good start to the program.”
View Royal Mayor David Screech called for a crackdown last month after the town’s fire department responded to a series of incidents on a single weekend.
In one incident, a 15-year-old was found unconscious and apparently intoxicated on a trail, while another male was injured after drinking and jumping from a cliff into the lake.
Screech said the fire department’s response was hindered by vehicles illegally parked in fire lanes or no-parking zones.
A road that goes from the main beach to a second beach inside the park was essentially blocked by parked vehicles, he told a CRD’s parks and environmental committee.
Larisa Hutcheson, general manager of CRD parks and environmental services, said the district has doubled the number of enforcement patrol hours at Thetis Lake over the past two weekends.
“We have bylaw and enforcement compliance at all of our parks and we allocate those out based on need,” she said. “We have shifted our presence from other parks into Thetis Lake to respond to what appeared to be just some real challenges with alcohol consumption and illegal parking.”
Hutcheson noted that drinking liquor is prohibited in all regional parks. “Thetis Lake is particularly dangerous when coupled with alcohol consumption just because of the cliffs and because of the deep lake and some of the drop-offs in the topography,” she said. “We just want people to be safe and enjoy our parks and keep the liquor drinking for when you get home.”
Screech confirmed that the CRD response seems to have had an impact already.
”From my perspective, we certainly appreciate the much increased bylaw enforcement presence in the park that the CRD has provided,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m told that that is certainly making a difference.”
Hurst said the fire department also stepped up patrols of the park. He noted that a number of vehicles have been towed for parking illegally.
“These people are parking in clearly marked areas where it says, ‘Fire lane, no parking.’ There’s signage, there’s yellow lines,” he said.
“I think it’s just that the park is a victim of its own success. It’s a great park, so everybody’s going there, and even when there’s no parking, they’re deciding to park on the ramps to the highway. They’re parking on the highway. They’re parking on the roads leading in.
“As long as they stay out of my fire lanes and they give me access, then they’ll be fine.
“But it’s a pretty expensive day when they get towed.”
Hutcheson said Thetis Lake has become increasingly busy as the Capital Regional District’s population continues to grow. There were 500,000 visits to the park in 2018 compared to 350,000 in 2010, CRD statistics show.
“There’s no doubt that it’s increased exponentially over the years and of course the issues and problems increase with the numbers of people that are out there,” Screech said.
He said officials may want to look at having “some type of full-time CRD presence” at the park in the future. “I don’t know if that’s a park ambassador-type of position or bylaw or what it is,” he said.
“But I think when you have a facility or a park that’s getting upwards of 2,000 people a day, I think you need to have some official presence there.”
