RVs won’t be able to return to gravel area along Deschutes Parkway, state agency says
About 30-40 vehicle dwellers were displaced from Deschutes Parkway last week when the street was closed for road work, including replacing the expansion joints on the road bridge south of Marathon Park.
The displacement now looks to be permanent. According to a Department of Enterprise Services (DES) announcement, the stretch of Deschutes between Marathon Park and Lakeridge Drive, where numerous RVs had parked along a gravel shoulder, will remain closed to parking permanently.
Parking will remain open on the other paved areas of Deschutes, however.
According to DES, the road work uncovered additional damage to the underwater irrigation system and adjacent wetland at Percival Cove caused by the weight of the parked vehicles.
Several repairs have been made, including to an irrigation control valve box and a malfunctioning sprinkler system, according to DES spokesperson Linda Kent.
However, DES is continuing to do environmental clean-up related to sewage dumping and “makeshift bathrooms,” as well as replanting vegetation on a walking path that had been carved down to the cove, Kent wrote in an email.
“It wasn’t easy to see the damage prior to the road closure,” Kent said.
Since 2019, DES has been engaged in a lengthy public engagement process regarding parking policies to address the large number of RVs serving as homes. That process was paused due to COVID-19, but will re-start in September with stakeholder engagement leading to a draft of a rule proposal, Kent said.
It would seem to be a moot point for the RV dwellers however, who are now dispersed throughout Olympia.
Some have ended up in west Olympia, others on East Bay Drive, and others on Ensign Road near Providence St. Peter Hospital, where at least 40 live-aboard RVs are parked, according to Teal Russell, Olympia’s Homeless Response Coordinator.
That permanent relocation increases the pressure on other RV hotspots like Ensign Road — and on the city of Olympia, said Keylee Marineau, Thurston County’s Homeless Prevention and Affordable Housing Coordinator.
There are at least 83 live-aboard vehicles parked within the city of Olympia, according to a log of active complaints kept by the city. That does not include Lacey or Tumwater.
“If car camping was a shelter, it would be the largest shelter in the county,” wrote Assistant City Manager Keith Stahley in an email to city council last week.
Russell said it would be helpful if there were a sanctioned area where RVs could legally park. “I don’t have a spot to tell people where to go right now,” she said.
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
.jpg)