An Overriding Concern
An overriding concern with the proposed new design of the Guemes Island Parking lot, presented to the Board of County Commissioners in July 2024, is safety. First is the 36% reduction in parking spaces. Currently about 89 cars can fit in the lot. The new design which proposes a 7 foot-high wall along Tide Water Road, reduces the number of parking stalls to 57, a loss of 42 parking spaces. Where are these cars going to park? They cannot park along Tide Water Road, nor can they park along South Shore Road which is signed no parking. There is no hope of parking along the already heavily utilized Guemes Island Road with its ferry holding lane. People will have to park up at the North Lot of the Community Hall which was offered during the current outage, putting them a quarter mile from the ferry dock. To get to the ferry, people will have to walk in the active lanes of the Guemes Island Road which has no sidewalks. This results in a major safety hazard.
Adding to the safety issue is the single entrance/exit, (necessary for paid parking?) located across from the Guemes Island Store. Coming out of the lot, a driver has to attempt to see oncoming traffic in both directions while sighting around near-by vehicles parked in the ferry holding lane. With the increased density of summer traffic, and only one exit, the safety officials on the island are predicting accidents at this intersection.
The claim of meeting and increasing ADA accessibility is unsubstantiated in this design. The sole entrance/exit across from the Guemes Island Store is about 350 feet up the 12% grade from the dock. The statement of Public Works officials is that this grade is ADA compliant and they will install a sidewalk over the ditch on the west side of Guemes Island Road to keep the public off Guemes Island Road. The ADA requirement is a slope not greater than 1:12 ratio. This ratio yields a slope of 8.33%. Not only the ADA impaired, but the elderly (about 62% of islanders are 65 years or older) are going to be challenged to cover this uphill distance.
The proposed 7 foot-high wall along the south end of the existing lot extends west beyond the only boat ramp on the island and will impair the ability to move large vehicles like garbage trucks and hook and ladder fire engines on and off the island. The wall removes the staging area for the launching/retrieval of trailered boats. The congestion created by the wall will narrow access by the school bus and especially for an aid car unloading a stretcher to the proposed landing craft style safety boat being built for Anacortes Fire and Rescue.
This reportedly 30% complete design, from the safety stand-point, must not be handed to the firm soon to be selected to complete the new parking final design.
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