A narrow shoreline road where the residents' association lists emergency vehicle access at low tide among its standing problems.
Where Ocean Beach Esplanade sits, and the other places we attend
around Roberts Creek. Every name on the map is a link.
Seventeen segments along the shore, and two electoral areas
Ocean Beach Esplanade runs along the beach at the eastern edge of Roberts Creek. Provincial road atlas data read on 12 September 2026 gives 17 segments totalling 2,710 metres, from 49.40276, -123.57174 at the north-west end to 49.38710, -123.54636 at the south-east end. The BC Address Geocoder places 2016 Ocean Beach Esplanade at 49.40238, -123.57034.
The road does not sit in one jurisdiction. Its north-west portion carries Roberts Creek addresses. The south-east portion carries Gibsons addresses on the Bonniebrook and Gower Point side. Which electoral area a given house falls in decides which fire department is first due and which director represents it, so the answer for one property does not carry across to a neighbour four hundred metres along.
Whittaker Creek filled the same cabin twice in twenty months
On 16 October 2021 debris carried down Whittaker Creek buried a 1950s cabin at 2016 Ocean Beach Esplanade up to its deck. It was the second time the building had been filled in twenty months. The first was in February 2020, when an evacuation order was issued at three in the afternoon on a Sunday for 1815 Lower Road together with 2016, 2022 and 2028 Ocean Beach Esplanade. Four properties were ordered out and six more were placed on alert.
carnage, to put it mildly
Valerie Durant, owner of 2028 Ocean Beach Esplanade, Coast Reporter, February 2020
Durant also said that if the wall blew out or the creek kept rising, water could flow under her house and the one beside it. The point is not that the creek is unusual. It is that the same civic numbers appear in two separate emergency files less than two years apart.
On 16 November 2021 two of these houses were ordered emptied
The regional district issued an evacuation alert on 15 November 2021 covering 13 addresses on this road and one on Lower Road. The following day it upgraded 2016 and 2022 Ocean Beach Esplanade to an evacuation order. At 2016, gravel was sitting on a deck six feet off the ground and at the same level inside the building. At 2022 there was roughly four feet of gravel across the floor. More than a dozen properties in the immediate area were on alert. By 25 November, two of four assessed properties had been found not habitable.
The atmospheric river event of Nov. 13 to 15 was a widespread one-in-50-year event, and a one-in-100-year event in some locations.
Armel Castellan, Environment Canada, Coast Reporter, November 2021
Residents on the road at the time were quoted in the same coverage. Paul Hollobon said he was glad everybody was safe and glad the urgency was being met. Cody Chancellor asked what one shovel was against the flow of a river like that. Judith Dunford said they had managed to divert the water, and called it a band-aid solution. Permanent road repairs across Roberts Creek were contracted in 2024 at about $5.5 million and were completed in October 2025, which left four winters between the damage and the finished work.
The residents' association listed the road itself as a problem
The Ocean Beach Esplanade Neighbourhood Association held its inaugural meeting in September 2020. A Coast Reporter community column by Michael Unger set out the issues the association was working on: "Beach fires, parties, parking, illegal camping, bylaw enforcement gaps, short-term rentals, signage, foreshore damage, habitat protection, abandoned boats, outdoor lighting, illegal tree/vegetation cutting, garbage, excessive speed, narrow road width, and emergency vehicle access issues during low tide." Donna McMahon, the Elphinstone director at the regional district, and long-time resident Kerry Mahlman were also named in that account.
Two items on that list belong to this road and no other in Roberts Creek. Narrow road width, and emergency vehicle access affected by the state of the tide. Whichever department is first due, the vehicle still has to get down the road, and on this one the tide is part of that calculation. Gibsons and District is the department that approaches Roberts Creek from this direction.
What a check on Ocean Beach Esplanade covers
The creek channel, the bank and any debris caught upstream of the property line, after every significant rain
Gravel and driftwood accumulation against foundations, decks and crawlspace vents
Whether the access to the property is currently passable by a fire engine or an ambulance, and at what tide
Doors, windows, sheds and gates, tried rather than looked at
Heat running, or the water shut off and the pipes drained for the season
Floor levels, subfloor and crawlspace after any high-water event, on buildings that have taken gravel inside before
Abandoned boats, beach fire remains and camping on or beside the lot, all on the association's own list
Foreshore steps, seawalls and retaining structures for movement or undercutting
A dated, photographed record filed the same day, and an immediate call if an alert or order is in force
Policies on seasonal and second homes usually carry a vacancy condition. It asks that somebody competent open the building and look through it on a stated cycle during the heating season, in many policies at four-day gaps or shorter, unless the water has been shut off and drained. Since the wording varies, the only version worth acting on is the one printed in your own policy.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Ocean Beach Esplanade is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
