Downtown health care workers decry parking enforcement

Health care workers at the Diamond Head Medical Clinic on Cleveland Avenue are decrying sudden enforcement of parking limits by District staff.

But the District says there is plenty of all-day parking available on side streets two blocks away and at a parking lot near the O’Siyam Park. The District has another reason for this enforcement — it wants to keep the core commercial area available for customers, clients and visitors to downtown, including those who visit the medical and dental clinics.

But that doesn’t help someone like Dr. Gerhard Malherbe, who has been ticketed twice for parking in the lot across from the clinic, next to the Copper Coil restaurant. “I have been parking here for several years, and now I have already been ticketed twice without any warning at all,” he says.

That is also what happened to Sukhi Haer, a nurse who has worked at the clinic for several years. She says the District aggressively started handing out $50 violation tickets last month, and she knows at least eight people in her office who were ticketed. Now between extremely busy shifts, she too has to run out of the clinic every two hours to avoid getting ticketed. “We were like ‘what the heck is going on here’. We have been parking here for eight years and suddenly, there are tickets being issued and there were no warnings,” Haer says.

Haer contested the ticket but was told by District staff she would have to pay. When asked where she could park, she was sent a map indicating parking available at the gravel lot near the O’Siyam Pavilion Park. But with construction work in downtown, that parking lot is often full. “If you don’t get there by 9 am, all the parking is gone,” she says.

“We have doctors who got tickets too, and there is no parking for doctors that are on call. If there is an emergency, they will have to get a vehicle parked three blocks away,” she adds. Last year, Haer tried biking to downtown from her home in Brackendale but fell down and injured her arm. Plus, she needs her car to run errands. “I do all our shopping and banking downtown, and I need the car for work and for all my errands,” she says.

Cycling to work is just not an option for Toni Webb, a nurse at the clinic who was also ticketed. After her shift at the clinic, Webb must drive to her second job as a server at the casino. “I kind of go straight from my job at the clinic to the casino, and I need my car for these two jobs,” she says. Now she has a third job — moving her car every two hours to ensure she doesn’t get ticketed again.

Another nurse at the clinic, Courtney Kuprel, says she was also parked on the lot on Loggers Lane when she was ticketed. “I live in Brackendale and cannot bike due to having to rush my children to and from activities after school. I do have to show up early now to find a spot farther down Loggers Lane and if that is full I have to set a timer to go move my car every 2.5 hours,” she says. “This is absolutely ridiculous.”

Kuprel has also disputed the ticket and although she has been told by the District she must pay, she says she won’t.

District Communications Manager Rachel Boguski says while enforcement of parking restrictions in Downtown Squamish has always been in place, the District has increased the service level of two existing Community Patrol Officers from casual to full-time in late March.

Boguski says this has allowed for an increased enforcement to address the growing community needs and bylaw concerns of residents, and it would help support the goals of the District’s seasonal visitor management plan.

She says two-hour maximums are in place in the central commercial area along Cleveland and Second Avenues and the cross streets between Pemberton Avenue and Victoria Street in order to accommodate customers, clients and visitors of Downtown businesses, including medical and dental clinics.

“Enforcement will occur when violations are noted and voluntary compliance has not been achieved,” she says.

Boguski says there are longer-term parking spaces with no daily limits available on various Downtown side streets, as well as at the parking lot located at the end of Main Street and the gravel area located near the BC Hydro site at the north end of Downtown.

“These spaces are ideal for employees of Downtown businesses, preserving the two-hour parking stalls for their customers and clients,” Boguski says. “Based on our current estimate, there is parking available for approximately 550 cars including 12 accessible on-street parking stalls in Downtown Squamish.”