Camas faces parking problems at popular park

Ask any newcomer to Camas what attracted them to the city and there’s a good chance the city’s abundant parks and open spaces will be on that list.

But the popularity of Camas’ parks sometimes comes with headaches for users as well as city staff. The city’s 5.5-acre Heritage Park, which offers boat launch access to the adjacent Lacamas Lake, has caused more than a few headaches this summer.

Camas Parks and Recreation Director Trang Lam said the decade-old park has seen more use over the past couple years than city officials ever expected.

During the summer months, the park is typically over capacity Friday through Sunday, Lam said, and is often at capacity during the other four days of the week.

“No one expected this level of use,” Lam said. “The pandemic created even more use in the park. And when you get more use there’s going to be more conflict.”

Some afternoon and evening park users have directed their aggression over a lack of parking availability toward the city’s parking attendants, Lam said.

“They are yelling at my parking attendants in not-so-nice words,” the parks director said, “and we’ve actually had to tow a few cars this summer.”

Some of the interactions have become so heated, the Camas Police Department now regularly drives by the park to make sure everything is OK, Lam said.

“I want to put it out there that people aren’t nice anymore,” Lam told the Parks and Recreation Commission in August. “And it has gotten more stressful for (staff) over the last couple years.”

City staff have noticed Heritage Park users double-parking in spaces, preventing strangers from being able to leave when they return to their vehicle.

The parking situation at Heritage Park recently prompted the Camas City Council to approve new city code language allowing repercussions for city park users who park more than one vehicle — or two motorcycles — in one parking space.

Some Heritage Park users also park in a nearby city parking lot meant for the city’s Lacamas Lake Lodge.

“We have also been seeing impacts on the lodge parking lot,” Lam said. “We have signs up, but people drive by and ignore them.”

To help keep the lodge parking lot free for lodge users — including many who attend the city’s recreation classes inside the lodge — the city has asked the lodge facility monitor to come in early to help monitor that lot, Lam said.

“We have also told our parking lot attendants to run over (to the lodge parking lot) to tell people to get out,” Lam told the Commission members.

On the positive side, the on-street parking near Heritage Park, which caused the city’s police department to get involved and begin issuing fines for illegally parked vehicles during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, seems to be getting better.

“The on-street parking has not been an issue,” Lam said. “A few people have parked on the grass across the street, but we’ve managed that. We don’t want people parking on the other side (of the road) for safety reasons — they’re crossing a street where people are going 40 miles per hour and at that curve, where you can’t see.”

Lam said she has been on-call every weekend this summer to assist Heritage Park parking staff with the issues occurring on particularly busy weekend days.

“They’ll hand the phone over to an angry person to talk to me, or … ask if they can tow a car,” Lam said.

The city had to tow three vehicles this summer, Lam said, and her parking lot attendants called the non-emergency police number (311) when people argued with staff or each other.

“We haven’t had any 911 calls,” Lam added. “That is reserved for (things) that are beyond just an argument. But we have had to call 311 … and the police know about the parking issues. They regularly drive by to check in.”

A search for solutions

Lam said she and members of the Parks and Recreation Commission have discussed possible remedies to the Heritage Park parking woes, including the possibility of reconfiguring the lot to fit more vehicles, installing a gate that staff could close when the lot is full and — like other jurisdictions in Clark County — charging a nominal fee to park at the popular site.

“Charging fees is not about making money,” Lam told the Commission. “It’s about managing capacity and safety.”

Lam told The Post-Record this week that, if the city does decide to charge fees for the Heritage Park parking lot, it would be less about generating revenues and more about helping to turnover the available parking spaces. The idea is that, if people pay to park for two hours, for instance, they will be more likely to return to the parking lot at the end of that two-hour timeframe and move their vehicle, allowing others to access the park.

Fees are not uncommon at park sites throughout Clark County, Lam said, adding that she knows other Clark County jurisdictions that are considering fees as a way to manage popular parking lots.