Enough, already.

Residents of a southeast London neighbourhood say they’re fed up with revving engines and fearful someone will be hurt — or killed — in a large parking lot they say is being used for racing and stunt driving.

The lot near the closed-down Rona Home and Garden Store on Commissioners Road East has suddenly become a flashpoint for a wider problem in the city — trespassing on vacant private land — that city hall’s own bylaw boss admits has brought a “surge” of complaints, but which the city is powerless to stop.

Since the store closed in 2013, the lot at the Summerside Shopping Plaza has become a playground for drivers looking to speed, race and do doughnuts, its neighbours say.

“We are talking about 70, 80, 90 (kilometres) an hour, ripping around the parking lot. There are close calls all the time,” Brian Blatnicki, a father in the Summerside neighbourhood, said Friday.

Frustrated that years of complaints haven’t resolved the problem, Blatnicki has launched an online petition to urge the property management company to install safety measures he says are needed to protect pedestrians and cyclists who use the path linking the lot to the neighbourhood behind the plaza.

“I’ve seen a bicyclist using the pathway on the sidewalk, almost being hit by a car racing around the back parking lots,” Blatnicki said.

It’s not just cars driving the troubles, neighbours say.

All kinds of vehicles — including motor bikes, dirt bikes and go-carts — have been seen and heard peeling through the lot, he said.

“The winter is even worse. As soon as snowfall hits, (drivers) are running into snowbanks on purpose, joy riding. It’s really incredible. I have a small daughter,” said Blatnicki.

Two years ago, property management company Bentall Kennedy put up no-trespassing signs in the lot telling drivers not to race or do doughnuts.

But that hasn’t stopped the careless activity, Blatnicki said.

He said he’s talked to city councillors, the bylaw department and police dozens of times in the last three years to report drivers wheeling around the lot.

While police do respond to complaints, they often show up after the drivers have gone, he said.

The city says its hands are tied, because the parking lot is privately owned by Bentall Kennedy.

“This is not a bylaw enforcement issue — it’s a trespass-to-property issue and there are remedies to stop this activity” under anti-trespassing law, Orest Katolyk, the city’s chief bylaw enforcement officer, said in an email.

“There has been a recent surge of complaints to our office on this type of activity on vacant lands and this is exactly the type of advice we provide the property owners,” Katolynk wrote in response to questions about the antics at the lot.

London police have received complaints about the parking lot, Const. Sandasha Bough confirmed.

Despite the warning signs, Blatnicki argues the property company hasn’t done enough to address the neighbours’ safety concerns.

Calls and emails sent by The London Free Press to several Bentall Kennedy representatives Friday were not returned.

Blatnicki posted a petition online asking Bentall Kennedy to ”block off usage of the large portion of the vacant parking lot and install speed bumps around the empty commercial building located on 1305 Commissioners Rd. E. . . . to deter and, hopefully, eliminate racing and speeding on the property.”

Within two days, the petition, which is to be delivered to general manager Celeste Nickle, had more than 60 signatures.

“I live behind this parking lot and the racing has been a dangerous and serious nuisance since Rona closed,” wrote neighbour Kate Barker.

“Like many of my neighbours on Evans Blvd., I have a small child who has been woken in the night by people racing in the lot. I also use this plaza for shopping and am concerned about the safety of my family and my neighbours as the amount of street racing has increased to the point that it now happens in broad daylight as well. There needs to be barriers or traffic-calming measures in place to finally put an end to it.”

jlobrien@postmedia.com

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