A pilot project to move pickleballers into a barricaded parking lot in Beacon Hill Park ignores a human-rights complaint filed last year by people with disabilities asking for vehicle access to that space, say the complainants.
Susan Simmons, who has multiple sclerosis and is president of the MS Wellness Centre, says the City of Victoria knows the B.C. Human Rights case was filed, yet went ahead with the pilot to shift pickleballers into the disputed area, the Arbutus Way parking lot near Goodacre Lake. The players had been banned from two tennis courts in James Bay because of noise complaints from area residents.
“If you’re going to give it to anybody, give it to people with disabilities,” Simmons said. “How did the pickleball players get the space before us? How is it that they ended up at the top of the list when we’ve been waiting two and a half years to get back into the park?”
The city temporarily closed all roads in Beacon Hill Park to vehicles in 2020 to facilitate physical distancing during the pandemic. They have since reopened some roads to motor vehicles, but have declined to reopen Arbutus Way and Chestnut Row, which together would create a cut-through route.
After their requests for roads into Beacon Hill Park to be reopened went nowhere, individuals and groups representing people with disabilities, including the MS Wellness Centre, filed a B.C. Human Rights complaint on July 27, 2021.
The complaint seeks “to have equal and safe access to Beacon Hill Park and amenities, to re-open roads and access to accessible parking facilities proximal to park amenities.”
The complainants hope to regain access to Arbutus Way, which enters the park via Southgate Street and leads to the small parking lot, which is walking distance to a number of amenities, including the playground, waterpark, washrooms, Goodacre Lake and a basketball court also used for fitness classes.
The representative individuals and groups argue it’s the closest and most convenient access for people with limited mobility.
Last year, council agreed to reopen Bridge Way to allow access by vehicle to a main washroom with two accessible parking spots and a pedestrian unloading zone, but Simmons said it’s basically a road to a destination bathroom and insufficient parking.
The city has said it will paint pickleball lines for at least two courts on the parking lot, as well as provide temporary fencing.
City spokesman Bill Eisenhauer says the courts won’t affect any existing accessible parking, since the lot is currently not being used.
A total of 20 accessible parking stalls were recently installed or upgraded in Beacon Hill Park, he said, including two next to the central washrooms.
David B. Willows, a master mariner who lives in Central Saanich, is named as the human rights complaint class representative on behalf of his eight-year-old son Nicholas, who has cerebral palsy. He said Nicholas hasn’t been to the park since before the COVID pandemic.
Willows said he doesn’t know if the city went ahead with the pickleball plan because it thinks it can win the human rights case “or if they’re just ignoring us and hoping that it will go away.”
Willows concedes that with many COVID-related human rights complaints already filed, it could be some time until the case is heard. “I don’t think anything’s going to change until we have the next council,” he said. Municipal elections will be held in October.
Use of vehicles is vital for both caregivers and people with mobility challenges, said Willows. “That whole part of the park has been cut off to us,” he said.
