White Rock鈥檚 iconic pier will re-open to the public within a week, following a decision at Monday night鈥檚 council meeting.
But council has delegated potential re-closure of the pier to Mayor Darryl Walker, should overcrowding and inadequate social distancing on the structure be deemed a threat to public safety.
Council has also decided to re-open all of the waterfront parking lots, except for the parkade, and reinstate the pre-COVID-19 four-hour pay parking limit.
City engineering and municipal operations director Jim Gordon said it would take a couple of days at most to re-open both the pier and the parking.
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Both issues were raised by Coun. Christopher Trevelyan, who moved re-opening of the pier, in light of current stable pandemic infection and recovery statistics.
鈥�(The pier) is unlike the promenade 鈥� it鈥檚 easy to close if we need to,鈥� he said.
鈥淎t this point, in mid-June, what are we waiting for? If we wait a month, will it be safer? Or two months鈥r a week, will it be safer?鈥�
Coun. Helen Fathers made the separate motion to re-open the parking, particularly west of the pier, which has been largely limited to residents-only.
鈥淚 think, as time marches on, we have to think about the ability for people who don鈥檛 live in our city to come down to the west side, especially those people that are using the boat launch and going into the waterfront.鈥�
Manning noted the meeting was the last real opportunity to give direction to staff for reopening the pier before the Canada Day long weekend, adding it would be valuable to open the pier prior to that to observe whether the public would be able to practise appropriate distancing.
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鈥淚t will give us time to react if things get out of hand before that long weekend 鈥� we need to see what the traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, is in that area, and if we wait until (the meeting of June 29) then, bam, everything鈥檚 open, the long weekend鈥檚 here, the nice weather is here, and then it could be a gong show. I鈥檇 like to see us ease into it before then.鈥�
Coun. David Chesney, however, urged caution in lifting restrictions, although he was willing to support a trial period.
鈥淭he reason we did all of this was because our community said 鈥榓re you crazy, with all those people coming to our community?鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淭his is the beach, this is summer, and I don鈥檛 need to wait to see what鈥檚 going to happen.
鈥淎 lot of people come to White Rock, they don鈥檛 walk the promenade, they go to the pier. So that鈥檚 a real hot-point for me. I鈥檇 love to see it all open again, but my concern is the residents in our community, many of them seniors, they abhor the idea that we鈥檙e wide open, it鈥檚 summer, 鈥榗ome on down to the beach, folks鈥�. One sunny day a week ago, on a Sunday afternoon, we had bumper-to-bumper traffic from Oxford (Street) to Stayte (Road).鈥�
Trevelyan said he would like staff to post two-metre distancing signs on the pier and 鈥渂e ready to close it down if we needed to,鈥� adding an amendment to delegate re-closing the pier to Mayor Darryl Walker under emergency circumstances.
Acting Mayor Scott Kristjanson said that, due to current limitations on gatherings of more than 50 people, he could not support a pier opening until a 鈥減hase three鈥� of provincial response to COVID-19 is announced.
The motion was passed, with Kristjanson voting against it.
alex.browne@peacearchnews.com
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