PAGE – Horseshoe Bend parking lot safety concerns have forced Page City Council to pass an emergency ordinance.

Before the ordinance, Page Police were limited in helping with traffic problems. Effective immediately, violators of the new code face up to a $300 fine.

Part of the legal process includes giving the entrance to the parking lot an official street name: Horseshoe Bend Drive.

The ordinance states that parking, loading and unloading passengers in or along the entry road to Horseshoe Bend, also known as Horseshoe Bend Drive, except in city designated, areas is prohibited. Loading and unloading passengers in or along U.S. Route 89 within 1,500 feet of the intersection of Horseshoe Bend Drive and U.S. 89 is also prohibited.

Justification for the ordinance grew from safety issues, including busses unloading in front of the fee booths, then turning around in the narrow entryway. This slows down the traffic flow into the parking lot, endangers foot traffic, and causes backups on the highway.

City Attorney Josh Smith said, “The staff at Horseshoe Bend has made several efforts to try to educate the public about the proper process for moving through and to tell people that they’re not allowed to load or unload in the roadway, but despite those education efforts it appears to be a continuing and ongoing problem.”

Smith added, “Hopefully this will address the issue for now so that we can have safe operations out there and not have anybody get hurt.  Then it will allow us to, I guess, have a little bit more teeth behind our education efforts and will afford law enforcement some teeth in stopping that kind of behavior.”