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'A unique situation': Newmarket working to resolve Jokers Hill parking woes

'I feel like this has moved at a snail's pace to get this resolved, and I am very frustrated,' says neighbouring resident
2020-10-23 jokers hill parking ASH - 1
Vehicles are parked along the Bathurst Street shoulder in Newmarket due to blocked access to the Jokers Hill hiking trail parking lot. Supplied photo/Lisa Heckbert

After months of growing frustration for trail users and neighbouring residents over the parking situation at Jokers Hill, discussions are finally underway to find a solution.

The Town of Newmarket, York Region, Township of King and University of Toronto are discussing what needs to happen to allow the parking lot at the trailhead to be reopened for public use. 

"We understand the public is interested in being at in Jokers Hill. I hike there with my family, and it is a beautiful place, and people want options to be outdoors during the pandemic," said Newmarket Mayor John Taylor. "But this is a unique situation, and we want a partnership-based approach with the University of Toronto to find what the right solution is here."  

For years, a  small dead-end stretch of old Bathurst Street in Newmarket has been used as a parking lot for hikers using the Jokers Hill trails, which run through the Koffler Scientific Reserve in King. The area had capacity for approximately 30 vehicles.

But after the COVID-19 pandemic began, the university, which owns the research area and trails, blocked access to the parking lot with concrete barriers, which have remained there ever since.

As a result, hikers have been parking along Bathurst, which is a busy arterial road maintained by the Region of York, as well as nearby in a plaza parking lot and on residential streets and in the townhomes' guest parking spaces.

Increasingly fed-up residents have been wondering when the barriers will be removed and the situation resolved.

"With the weather being so nice and unseasonably warm this week, there are huge amounts of people on the trails," said resident Lisa Heckbert. "I feel like this has moved at a snail's pace to get this resolved, and I am very frustrated."

The director of the Koffler Scientific Reserve, Dr. John Stinchcombe, told NewmarketToday that he sympathizes with the plight of neighbourhood residents.

"I understand, clearly, that people in the neighbouring community do not like the overflow parking, and the fact people are parking in fire lanes and so on," said Stinchcombe. 

 "All of that has been a problem for us beforehand, and I don't wish it on them. But I also don't see how we can operate our research facility as an off-leash dog park."

The barriers were initially erected last April in response to the pandemic when the provincial government was advising people to stay at home. At the same time, UofT's operating capacity was reduced to 25 per cent of normal, making it difficult to enforce proper physical distancing measures and maintain the parking lot and trails. 

According to Stinchcombe, UofT consulted with the region, King Township and Lake Simcoe Area Conservation Authority before putting the barriers in place. No one realized at the time — and was only discovered in the past week or so — that the parking lot is the property of the Town of Newmarket.

Although the barriers were initially a response to COVID-19, they proved effective in addressing several problems plaguing the research area for years, caused by too many members of the public treating the Jokers Hill trails like a public park rather than an academic research area, Stinchcombe said. 

Trespassing, littering, vandalism and theft of equipment and threatening behaviour toward staff have been longstanding problems, he said. But ever since the barricades were put in place, those problems diminished.

Stinchcombe described encounters to NewmarketToday where university staff were "menaced" in the early days of the pandemic when they tried to tell hikers the trails were closed. He also said research equipment set up in the forest had been stolen, and the parking lot was frequently used as a jumping-off point for people to trespass onto nearby private property or have unauthorized campfires in the research area.

"At one point, one of our neighbours confronted trespassers who pulled a knife on him," he recalled. 

"We had all these problems, but when we put up the barriers because of COVID-19, all the threatening behaviour and finding campfire rings with crushed-up beer cans vanished. That's part of why we have retained them."

Discussions between research area management and local municipalities began about a week ago. Stinchcombe said municipal representatives have been "insistent" that the parking lot be reopened, but he and his colleagues do not want to return to the status quo. They want some kind of commitment from the municipalities to help deal with the problems that have plagued the trail system.

"We aren't negotiating per se; I think we are trying to understand what Newmarket's interests are in this parking lot and what services it will provide," he said.

"I really hope that if the parking lot is really near and dear to the Town of Newmarket ... (they will share what their) plans are for maintenance and animal control, bylaw enforcement, garbage, police presence. 

"We can't really negotiate because it is Newmarket's land, but we will be more enthusiastic if we can make this a well-maintained, well-run, supervised and policed (facility)."

Mayor Taylor noted that even if UofT is frustrated about the level of public access to the research area and the problems that come with it, cutting off access to the parking lot and creating an unsafe situation on Bathurst Street was " maybe not the right answer."

When asked why such an unsafe situation was allowed to persist for months before the town engaged with UofT to find a solution, Taylor explained that the town didn't realize it owned the property at the centre of the dispute until recently. Now it does, and the town is moving to resolve it.

"I am going to speak with Dean of Science Melanie Woodin and try to get a better understanding of everyone's concerns and views. Then come up with a solution that will work for UofT, Newmarket, and that York Region can be comfortable with," the mayor said.

"It sounds as though UofT might want to fully close public access. That would be tricky, but we can look at that. Perhaps we can redirect residents to the many, many other opportunities for hiking in the regional forests. Or perhaps there is some other approach. We would be well served by having more conversations."

As for whether the Town of Newmarket is prepared to take on at least partial responsibility for maintenance and enforcement at Jokers Hill, the mayor demurred somewhat.  He is going into the discussions with an open mind but noted that the town has its own operating and financial limitations it has to deal with from COVID-19, just as UofT does.