Residents are fed up with those who park outside Aquia Landing

Drivers who park their cars outside a Stafford County park have sparked the ire of nearby residents.

Aquia Landing Park, at the confluence of the Potomac River and Aquia Creek, was one of many beaches in Virginia that were closed off to visitors Gov. Ralph Northam in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Northam’s executive that triggered the closures states that crowds are not allowed to convene on the beach, but it does make exceptions for fishing and trail walking, activities that can be done while practicing social distancing.

Because of the closure, visitors can’t use Aquia beach’s parking lot. So, park visitors have worked around this by parking on nearby Canterbury Road,  a street lined with single-family homes, some on properties valued at near $1 million.

Residents there say that parking has caused them headaches, so they took their complaints to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors during the citizen comment period of their May 5 meeting.

They spoke of illegal parking along Canterbury resulting in as many as 25-30 cars so densely packed as to block driveways and prevent emergency vehicles from being able to drive down the road. The said visitors left behind excessive amounts of garbage, while another complainant said someone threw rocks at a light post.

While visitors have been given warnings about the parking situation, no one has been ticketed for the infractions.

“All these complaints we’ve heard are just the tip of the iceberg,” said Aquia District Supervisor Cindy Shelton who brought the issue to the Board.

Sheriff’s deputies have placed no parking signs in the area, but that may not be enough to deter visitors.

Many suggestions were brought up to address the situation.

One option proposed by Supervisors Crystal Vanuch and Gary Snellings, of the Rock Hill and Hartwood districts, respectively, was to use the county’s authority to tow the cars away since it is illegal to block driveways and roads where emergency vehicles need to travel.

Some on the board, such as George Washington Supervisor Tom Coen, were cautious to go any further with enforcement, especially because of the possibility of Aquia Landing reopening by May 15. That’s the date Northam said he would allow some businesses that had been shuttered due to the coronavirus — like hair and nail salons — to reopen, signaling an about-face on what has been a months-long statewide shutdown of “non-essential businesses.”

Under normal circumstances, there’s a locked gate that keeps people out of the park when not in use. For the past 15 years, However, the County Parks and Recreation Department sells the passcode to the combination lock on the gate to county residents for $10. This allows visitors to park their cars in the parking lot to go fishing before the park opens to everyone else.