Email regarding Eltham Road Safety

Re: Traffic Concerns On Eltham Road

To: Mayor and Council

Additionally to Ms. Lemon’s comments of May 18, 2018 attached.

It has been well over a year since her request to you and we have yet to see any tangible solutions from council. We have no choice but to pay our property taxes and Town utilities in a timely fashion, so it seems to us that council should also deal with residents’ concerns in the same timely manner.

1. Our street is very busy.

One of our pedestrian neighbours is elderly, profoundly deaf, and relies on a walker to take his multiple daily constitutionals. The man cannot hear traffic approaching. Another resident, who also takes daily walks has dire mobility issues and is quite unstable on his walking sticks. The only place for them to walk is on the street. There are people on mobility scooters who use the street as well and they too must use the street. By this I mean, on the asphalt, often dodging parked vehicles that cause them to veer into the middle of the street. None of these pedestrians can evade vehicles quickly. There are multiple elderly pedestrians on this street daily, many of whom also have various mobility issues. Since Ms. Lemon’s letter to you, a young family with two children, who walk their dog on the street, have moved to the neighbourhood. Another resident has since had a little girl who also walks with her family on the street. Many residents on the street and in both Stratas are dog owners and walk their dogs multiple times a day. This is an unusually, busy, short, and unsafe street.

We need, at the very least, a sidewalk on one side of the street and speed deterrents: signage and speed bumps. 50 Km. is much too fast for this tiny street given the hazards for the many pedestrians.

There are 65 Lions Cove condominium units and 36 Ashley Ct. townhouse units at the end of the street. The majority of their traffic only has access from Eltham Rd.. Both Stratas have blocked the entrances to their properties from Old Island Hwy. so their services, many occupants, and visitor traffic must traverse Eltham Rd..

B.C. Transit riders park on Eltham Rd. and leave their cars parked all day.

Tenants who live on Helmcken Rd. also park on the street as do their visitors. (re:Tenant By-law).

The doctor’s office on the street provides parking in the rear, but unfortunately the sign indicating “Parking in Rear" is too small and is often obscured by parked vehicles and a tree, so patients don’t see the sign and thus, park on the street.

Eltham Rd. has four houses on the street and their driveways front on Eltham Rd.. The street is about 225 feet long but, the street services 101 strata units and 4 single family homes. Ashley gate has 3 visitor parking stalls for 36, three bedroom, units!! Many of the strata units have multiple vehicles, some have four vehicles, and limited parking per unit on their own property, therefore, they park on Eltham Rd., on the boulevard. Good luck trying to landscape the boulevards in front of our homes!!!

Ashley Gate and Lions Cove garbage and recycling pick up necessitates eight trips of large trucks on our street each week. This is in addition to garbage and recycling pickup for the single family homes on the street. So, six large trucks a week, 2 trips each, or a total of 12 trips a week, in addition to many large delivery vehicles frequently using the street for grocery delivery to the elderly at Lion’s Cove and the street cleaner that is often unnecessary. Not to mention a multitude of other service vehicles for Ashley Gate and Lion’s Cove, driving back and forth and parking on Eltham Rd. often in front of the fire hydrant . There are also, as I’m sure you are aware, many emergency vehicles attending Lion’s Cove on a frequent basis. They also use Eltham Rd..

This traffic situation is completely unacceptable.

2. A commercial landscaping vehicle with an attached large trailer is intermittently parked between 295 and 293 Eltham Rd. driveways. This is a large truck and visibility is impossible for safe egress from the driveways. It is not the only parked large vehicle that has obscured vision from driveways on our road.

3. Residents/visitors/services of Ashley Gate constantly park in front of the fire hydrant and on the - now very faded and worn - yellow, painted no parking line on the road, (people actually park on it). Both Stratas’ visitors, realtors and trades people park there constantly.

Note that at Helmcken Market the fire hydrant across the street from them has a steel bollard erected that protects the hydrant and displays a no parking decal. Suggest the same solution here. Either that, or enforcement. Given the fact that this is a very short street, I suggest that a sidewalk/curb solution would not overly tax the town’s resources especially given the amount of money being spent on parks that are only used for half the year and where there is no safety risk.

Thank you for your attention to these concerns.

Yours truly, Rose, 293 Eltham Rd., Victoria, B.C.

---

From: Gery Lemon Subject: Parking congestion on Eltham Rd Date: May 18, 2018 at 4:58:46 PM PDT To: Robyn Rose

Dear Mayor and Council;

Parking has long been a frustration for we residents of houses fronting and abutting Eltham Road, but in recent months parking congestion combined with speeding has gone from irritating to hazardous.

As you know, the road is short with just six houses – four with addresses on Eltham, two on - – and two multi-dwelling strata complexes (Ashley Gate and Lions Cove) at the end of the street. The number of units has not increased since the Lions Cove complex was completed in the mid-1990s, but the numbers of vehicles vying to park on our street most surely has. Vehicles are often parked cheek by jowl on both sides of the street, blocking sight lines for pedestrians – many of them elderly – coming from Lions Cove. Our street lacks sidewalks and vehicle speed seems to have risen with vehicle numbers such that pedestrians are put at risk. From time to time vehicles block driveways, boulevards that we tend and care for as our own are being chewed up and parking for our own visitors is often impossible.

It should be noted that one of the structures on our street includes a physician’s office that provides parking for patients at the rear of the building. Likewise, the two stratas provide parking for their residents and visitors. We don’t know who owns the vehicles contributing to the new traffic and parking volumes, but as long time residents of the street we are, frankly, fed up.

Bylaw enforcement has been called and attended several times over the years, and we understand the bylaw as written limits their ability to restrict parking.

Therefore, we request that council and staff be inventive in developing an enforceable bylaw that will allow we immediate residents the quiet enjoyment of our street.

This would not be the first time council has made provisions for the convenience of taxpaying residents. An example of a solution may be drawn from Erskine Lane where parking has been facilitated for residents.

We need your help and request your expertise and consideration in developing a solution.

Our thanks,

Gery Lemon 296 Eltham Rd

---

On Oct 2, 2019, at 1:53 PM, Mayor And Council Email mayorandcouncil@viewroyal.ca wrote:

Good afternoon, Thank you for contacting the Town of View Royal. We are unable to open the attached document. The following error message appears:

Please resend the attachment if possible. Best regards,

Town of View Royal 45 View Royal Avenue | Victoria, BC V9B 1A6 p: 250-479-6800 | f: 250-727-9551 | info@viewroyal.ca