KINGSTON – The popularity of Gord Edgar Downie Pier has a local business owner lobbying the city to take steps to make it safer.

Phillip Brown launched a petition calling for the city to close the pier at night in an effort to reduce overnight use and abuse.

He said he plans to present the petition, which currently has close to 500 signatures, to the city’s administrative policies committee next week.

“I’m super proud of the city for what they have accomplished,” Brown said of the pier and the rebuilt Breakwater Park. “The problem is with alcohol and water and darkness and a little bit of distance from supervision, stuff happens.”

Brown said pier visitors in the mornings are greeted by broken glass bottles, cigarette butts, feces, vomit, garbage and needles in the sand.

But most distressing of all, Brown said, is the potential for drowning during the overnight hours.

“There is this concern about someone drowning off the pier. It’s been a concern for many years. Kids have been coming down here late at night for many years. It’s just the new volume has overwhelmed people. It’s dozens, to 50 or 60 people at night after the bars close,” he said.

Brown said the city closes and secures other public spaces at night, such as the Springer Market Square skating rink, the Tomlinson water park and splash pads.

Brown said it would be up to the city to decide how the site would be secured at night.

“This could become an iconic pier on a global basis, a place that people talk about for generations,” Brown said. “It could become an embarrassment if we leave it or don’t take care of it. It could become the site of a tragedy.”

Closing the pier would help reduce the city’s and the community’s liability for the location, he added.

“The bigger liability is in our hearts. We have recognized this, this is evident to us, it is up to us to do the right thing now and make an offensive move as opposed to a defensive move,” he said.

“We know we have a massive unresolved street party issue in Kingston. People are concerned this could become an extension of Aberdeen Street.”

City officials met with Brown and discussed the petition and his safety concerns. When the city receives similar safety concerns about parks, it often includes bylaw enforcement and Kingston Police in those discussions.

Luke Follwell, director of recreation and leisure services, said there are currently no plans to increase security at the pier at night.

Prior to being rebuilt in the past two years and opened to the public, the public utilities dock was for decades used as a swimming spot.

“People have been using the pier for many years. It’s an asset that already existed,” Follwell said.

Follwell said the pier is just one city-owned asset that is on the water, just like Lake Ontario Park, Confederation Park and Grass Creek Park.

“We identified almost 280 kilometres of waterfront in the city of Kingston boundary. We’ve got a lot of water, that’s one of the benefits of living in Kingston,” Follwell said.