Deschutes commissioners discuss Smith Rock neighbors’ parking concerns

Say they plan to visit the park this weekend to see the issues first-hand

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Deschutes County commissioners and state park officials met Wednesday to discuss possible solutions to the latest parking issues on streets near Smith Rock State Park.

Last week, NewsChannel 21 spoke with the Terrebonne Neighborhood Alliance about residents’ safety concerns about overflow parking at the popular hiking and climbing spot. 

The alliance started a petition earlier this month, urging commissioners to discourage parking on Wilcox Avenue or to only allow it on one side of the street. The petition also asked the county to address similar issues on 17th and 33rd streets.

County Road Department Director Chris Doty said overflow parking poses safety and livability concerns for surrounding areas, especially with the upcoming July Fourth weekend.

Doty and Commissioner Patty Adair said based on photos submitted by concerned residents, Wilcox looks more like a parking lot than a road.

“From the Road Department’s perspective, we don’t design our roads for a tremendous amount of roadside parking, because it deteriorates the shoulders, the edges of the pavement, and creates other issues there,” Doty said.

Smith Rock State Park Manager Matt Davey said last weekend, they opened up RV and trailer parking, which opened up 250 more parking spaces within the park.

However, Davey said increasing the number of parking spaces did not actually relieve overflow parking on surrounding roads. Instead, he said, it led to high capacity within the park and jammed trails.

“All the parking inside the park filled up and overflowed into Wilcox,” Davey said. “Pretty rarely do people park on Wilcox to avoid the fee.”

He said hopefully a parking prohibition on Wilcox would discourage people from parking there.

County commissioners said they plan to visit the park this weekend, to get a better idea of what the parking situation is like.  They said they will revisit the topic on Monday and will work on coming up with potential solutions.