Ark Valley News - Parking addressed ahead of soccer

The city and rec commission will install a split-rail fence to block parking on the west side of Emporia.

Parking addressed ahead of soccer
By Taylor Messick
Last Updated: August 31, 2017

The parking concerns at the Valley Center Recreation Commission's soccer fields on North Emporia may be more perception than reality.

Though space appears to be at a premium during AYSO soccer games, officials said spectators can find parking near the golf course farther north on Emporia.

To discourage illegal parking in the grass at nearby McLaughlin Park, the city and the rec commission decided recently to have a split-rail fence installed along the side of the road.

When the soccer fields first opened in 2015, many spectators were ticketed for illegally parking on the west side of Emporia.

“We did a little parking study last October," said recreation commission director Steve Geddes. “We saw that there were numerous open parking spaces but people were not driving all the way up to the parking lot. They were parking illegally but that problem was solved by the parks department putting up T-posts and cut-off telephone poles."

Those will be replaced by the new fence.

Parking along the west side of the access road that leads into the golf course and soccer field parking lot is illegal. It is illegal in order to allow access for emergency vehicles. Parking is allowed on the east side of the road, but that area is meant to be supplemental parking.

Geddes said AYSO staggered its games with an extra 15 minutes in between to allow teams to get in and out. Last year's study still revealed that up to half of the parking lot's 80 spaces were empty and folks were still parking along the side of the access road.

“There really wasn't a parking problem," said Geddes. “People were just parking at the park or the fishing dock because they were too lazy. If they played on the south end, they didn't want to drive all the way up to the parking lot and walk back down there. So they were just parking wherever they could, even though there were open spots."

While it's not surprising that people are trying to park closer to their destination, Geddes said it's not a good situation. During periods of heavy rainfall, parking in the grass near the ditch causes much larger issues at the facilities.

“Most days it wouldn't be that big of a deal," he said. “But when it rains it's a big deal. If they park parallel along the east fence, they can fit about 24 cars in there. Now I've seen them parking at an angle. That's fine when it's dry, but they're pulling into a ditch. They can probably get about 40 cars in there if they angle park but five of them are going to get stuck and rut the whole place up."

Geddes said he will continue to work alongside AYSO to educate the public about parking at the facilities. In the meantime, VCRC and Valley Center's parks department have agreed to go half-and-half on a split-rail fence for the west side of the access road. Geddes hopes it will look nicer than the current barriers. He hopes the fence will be in before the start of the AYSO season on Sept. 16.