Parking at Pima Canyon not so simple

Changes in South Mountain Park at Pima Canyon brought out nearly 50 people Saturday to hear why park officials eliminated about one-third of the parking last fall.

The reason was fairly simple.

"It is actually illegal to park off the pavement in a mountain preserve park," said Kathryn Reichert, deputy parks and recreation department director.

She added that park staff is hoping that people will also use other park entrances to reduce the impact at Pima Canyon, which is a popular starting point for hikers, mountain bikers and even horse riders.

Instead of encouraging park-goers to use nearby trailheads like Beverly Canyon off 46th Street and Baseline Road, the elimination of parking on the south side of Pima Canyon Road has resulted in people driving up and down the road during busy times, looking for a parking space.

But parking is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stress and strain on the city's parks system.

The parking changes in Pima Canyon illustrate the growing demand for park access, especially critical on the Ahwatukee Foothills side with only two trailheads with parking and two other access points in neighborhoods with only on-street parking.

"We want as many people to use the park," said Councilman Greg Stanton, "but we don't want to pave any more of the park," for parking or other uses, he told the crowd Saturday.

"It's not an easy answer to just say ‘pave' (for more parking)," Stanton said.

Opponents of the new parking, which prevents people from parking off road and limits parking to marked spaces on the north side of the road, were frustrated at what they see as a needless change.

"What you have is more car pollution," said Joe Greco of Tempe. "I think you created a pollution problem while trying to take care of a preserve problem."

And while parking is a problem early on weekends, it isn't an issue most of the time.

"Come any week day, there's no parking issue," said Joe Hamilton of Ahwatukee Foothills, who is a frequent park user.

While overuse of parking facilities was the topic for the meeting Saturday, overuse of the trail system was also mentioned, along with the tendency of some people to wonder off the established trail system and create "spider trails."

"I think we're slowly losing the resource as we try to bring in more people," said Joe Feller of Ahwatukee Foothills. He wanted more education and enforcement to prevent people from wondering off trails.

But with the city budget tight - almost $70 million was cut last month - prospects for additional trailheads, parking and facilities will hinge on Proposition A, a 30-year extension of the one-10th-of-a-cent sales tax passed by the voters in 1999.

To help with congestion, the city has applied for a matching grant to almost double the number of parking spaces at the Telegraph Pass trailhead on Desert Foothills Parkway. Future plans include a trailhead and parking near 19th Avenue and Chandler Boulevard on the State Trust land.

But none of that is possible unless voters approve Proposition A on the May 20 ballot.

Meanwhile, staff is working with businesses and others near trailheads to help with parking.

"Our goal is to keep people parking legitimately," said Reichert, which at Pima Canyon includes getting permission from a nearby business to use 100 of its parking spaces on weekends to augment the 40 city-owned spaces at the trailhead.

The bottom line?

"I guess it's not the last you'll hear on this issue," Stanton said.