Heading to a Victoria park? You might soon want to bring a stopwatch.
A proposal from Victoria city staff suggests setting time limits on how long people can stay in parks, as well as prohibiting homeless people from lingering in the same tenting spots.
Limits Differ for the Homeless
For most park-goers, the proposed six-hour limit within a 24-hour period likely won’t affect their recreational experience. However, others who are forced to stay in local parks due to a lack of housing will be affected.
Although that same six-hour limit doesn’t apply to those who are sheltering in parks, they would still be required to move at least 100 metres after a 12-hour sheltering period.
According to Mayor Lisa Helps, who said she supports the proposal, the changes are not meant as an attack on the homeless. Rather, they’re an attempt to protect natural park ecosystems.
“The reality is people are sleeping in parks and all we’re asking is that when they wake up, if they could just move somewhere more than 100 metres so the flora doesn’t become compacted, the grass doesn’t die,” she said.
“I wish that people didn’t have to sleep in tents in the park but they do.”
Five Major Changes in Total
Along with the time limits, the city has proposed four additional changes:
• Authority to impound property unlawfully left in a park.
• The ability to temporarily close a park or part of a park for public safety or maintenance.
• A prohibition on interference with city workers conducting park clean up, maintenance or other work.
• Introducing the ability to apply for permits to carry out protests “and other expressive activities” in a park.
