The City of North Vancouver council will discuss a proposed plan to expand paid parking to Lower Lonsdale and Central Lonsdale.
Maps in the city’s staff report show that paid parking will be introduced on several busy commercial and mixed-use blocks. In Lower Lonsdale, new pay parking zones are proposed around Lonsdale Quay and extending north along Lonsdale Avenue. In Central Lonsdale, the new zones are centered around 13th Street and adjacent commercial areas. Nearby residential streets will also transition to permit parking.
Five changes in Curb Access and Parking Plan:
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More Pay Parking: Paid parking expands into Lower Lonsdale and Central Lonsdale
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Updated Resident and Visitor Permits: Permit areas are being redrawn, and eligibility rules are being adjusted. According to CNV, residents will pay more but have more flexibility.
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Expanded Loading Zones: More short-term loading areas will support deliveries and drop-offs, easing congestion.
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More Accessible Parking: New on-street spaces for people with disabilities will be added near businesses and public services.
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Special-Use Parking: Custom zones for unique needs (like carshare or short-term visitor parking) will be introduced.
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CNV plans to implement paid parking in May and continue through the end of the year.
The rollout will start with two months of preparation, including public education, signage production, and staffing. The new rules are expected to be in place in six months. The city will use an online platform, mail-outs, advertising, and in-person outreach to explain the changes.
New rates would also come into effect. On-street pay parking would rise to $3.00 per hour, up from $2.25 in some areas. A discounted first-hour rate is planned for 2025 and 2026 to ease the transition. Residential permits would increase from $2.10 to $15.00 per month. Both rates would be reviewed in 2027 based on actual parking demand.
City of North Vancouver says outdated curb space and parking policies—many of which date back to the 1990s—can no longer address today’s urban environment. According to the staff report, the current system contributes to a lack of reliable parking turnover near businesses, impedes deliveries and passenger drop-offs, and fails to provide accessible parking.
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Residential areas near commercial zones also face mounting pressure from increased demand, especially as new housing developments offer limited off-street parking, CNV notes. Additionally, many residents remain ineligible for on-street parking in permit-only areas. This leads to congestion, pollution, and time lost as drivers circle in search of available spaces. Council will debate the proposed changes on April 7. If the plan is endorsed, staff will return with amendments to the Fees and Charges Bylaw and a revised financial plan to support implementation.
Firing paid parking of the Lonsdale merchant will kill their business. Shoppers will just go to Malls or areas with free parking; not a good idea!
Absolutely horrendous move! People, who can, will go elsewhere to shop. Those living in the community who fight to park daily will be hit hard with a huge increase to park near home, if they can even find it. Pay more to have a monthly pass and still not get to park.
“new housing developments offer limited off-street parking, CNV notes”
This is not a surprise to anyone but CNV who told us that developers were seeing a decreased demand for parking spaces, so they permitted buildings with not enough parking spaces. Space for parking is not as profitable as condo units are for developers, so they jack up the price for parking spots, or limit them to 1 per unit. Many people have jobs that require them to drive, either because they have to be at multiple locations per day, or their work or school falls at non-traditional hours or days not served by transit. More people would purchase electric cars if they had a parking spot in their building where they could charge their battery.
Hospital workers and visitors park along neighbouring streets that are not pay parking zones, or are not time-limited, understandably. I feel sorry for the elderly people who won’t be able to afford the exorbitant parking rates to visit their friends and family at the hospital, or can’t manage the long walk to free parking. I would think with staffing shortages that visitors would be encouraged, as they can help with feeding and comforting patients and residents.
the tax greed of governments
Is it too late to cancel this? Who asked for this?
It’s not a struggle to find parking for Lower Lonsdale if you go up a couple blocks and walk 5 minutes 🤦♂️
The people who live there who can’t park infront of their own place.
This is the inevitable outcome of selling street parking spaces to adjacent businesses – which created the parking shortage in the first place.
They create all this patio space for very few who actually use it and now want us to pay to park in the few spaces that remain. The war on cars is ridiculous. They want the people to come there, but figure we’ll all walk or take a bus.
Comments here are hilarious considering free parking is already heavily, if not entirely, subsidized by everyone, including the people who don’t drive and are not contributing anything to pollution, health and emergency costs, and other costs associated with vehicles.
It’s about time people had to pay the true cost of personal vehicle ownership. If they get angry because of this development, all that shows is they have lived without understanding those costs exist for so long, and been entrenched in familiarity bias for so long, that they’re unable to accept reality.
I live in the 100 block of East Lonsdale, I have a permit to park and it is already nearly impossible to find a permit spot between 8am-10 pm. Now, I will have to pay just to be at home during those hours when permit spaces are unavailable. This is absurd. We can’t afford this cash grab.
Paid parking Lonsdale Ave and side streets is ridiculous. I am a home health care worker. I would have to pay $18 a day or more to visit my clients. ?? That is absurd.
I can recall parking issues fifty years ago when I worked at the post office at first and lonsdale. Back then the parking police used to chalk the tires every hour…if your car didn’t move when they came back in an hour, you got a ticket. So we would rub it off or move our car 10 feet. Parking has always been an issue at lower lonsdale.
There are so many doctor and dental offices in this area, its ridiculous to make people pay for parking, especially for seniors. This is what happens when you build too many buildings in these areas. Next you’ll be putting tolls on the North shore bridges. You should feel very ashamed of yourselves city of North Vancouver.
We live on East 6th St just before St Andrews. We have one car and we can park in front of our house 95% of the time. I can see the need for controlling parking usage on Lonsdale and perhaps the first block east and west of Lonsdale, but beyond that is unnecessary. Besides that, raising the rate from $2.50 to $15.00 per month is yet another unnecessary gouging and a blatant tax grab. Reign in spending and limit all tax increases to the rate of inflation.
It just means my weekly shopping expedition in central Lonsdale will become a weekly shopping expedition at the Walmart in Capilano Mall. I thought NV City Council was supposed to support our local merchants! The only time I’ll be anywhere near central Lonsdale now is when I have a doctor’s appointment and I’ll be taking transit for that because it’ll probably be cheaper than paying for parking.
All multi-family housing should have sufficient on site parking, were that the case most of this headache and controversy would not exist. The anti-car, densification for dummies crowd have been running the show for far too long and a return to common sense planning and decisions that work for most, not the few, desperately needs to happen.
Monitoring parking violations are much more sophisticated today. No more chalk marking. Staff take picture with GPS stamp. Parking even in same block for over (say 1 hr) will get you a ticket.
The problem in my view is we built too many condos in the area with limited parking. Despite the plea at the then allowed hearings , the council listened to the cycle group that emphasized
the benefits of fewer parking spaces and advocated people to cycle and walk. An obvious mistake. I used to enjoy going down to lower Lonsdale before the build up to enjoy the restaurants etc. To date I have been there twice in the past 4 years.
Louise
I don’t think it should be free to store your private belongings in public space.