District of West Vancouver council voted unanimously to move forward with a plan for pay parking at three popular West Vancouver parks.
At a council meeting on March 28, councillors voted to ask staff to prepare a report on pay parking options to implement a two-year seasonal pay parking program in three local parks.
The three parks are Lighthouse Park, Whytecliff Park and Nelson Canyon Park/Whyte Lake Trailhead. District staff will now report back to Council with a plan to implement the two-year seasonal pay parking program in these parks, though it is not likely to be implemented this summer.
District staff said the money collected will go into park maintenance and will also protect the existing neighbourhoods and the adjacent streets where people have been parking when accessing the parks.
Councillor Craig Cameron said that no plan is perfect and there are always going to be adjustments that will need to be made.
“We are now probably going to be a minority among municipalities which don’t have paid parking, In Vancouver, there is paid parking in most areas, and I would like to see it happen soon as possible,” he said.
Councillor Sharon Thompson said the district could pursue the parking model similar to the one in Lynn Headwater park where residents can purchase an annual pass for a designated fees. She also noted that West Vancouver is one of the last communities without paid parking, which drives more people to come here.
A similar proposal was debated by council in 2017 but was rejected.
Will there be a commensurate reduction in property taxes?
Having been both the caretaker and concessionaire in Whytecliff for 8 years each, I think this is long overdue. People come from far and wide to picnic in West Van parks because they are gorgeous, but also because of the free unrestricted parking. It’s a big burden on the parks and wildlife due to the trampling, noise and garbage, and also on Parks employees. I think there has to be a way that residents are exempt from paying altogether, maybe a free sticker to identify the cars. Also a time limit on weekends would be awesome.
In my view our parks are for every ones use and pay parking is a step in the wrong direction!
Families are paying far too much tax on everything.
The right for fresh air and a walk through
the woods should be every ones right without paying .
The fact we are overbuilding on the North Shore is evident – traffic congestion – increased population (the results of which have seen an exodus of services vital to the people who live here. It is evident we do not have
enough medical professionals to handle the needs of our current population. Many have left the north shore due to traffic congestion and loss of live ability.
Louise
You stand a lot better chance of getting to use the WV parks if you get there before 9 a.m. on a weekend. After that all the parking is taken by non North Shore residents taking advantage of the free parking and staying all day. This is just the way it is, almost all the other parks have pay parking. It has nothing to do with doctors or development
This is a fun theory, but none of the three mentioned parks is close to enough to anything else except the park itself for non-residents to take advantage of free parking. People who park at the, um, park are there to use the park.
I could see this being a strategy at Ambleside, but not the others.
I guess you didn’t understand what I wrote. The non residents taking advantage of the free parking are there to use the park, as opposed to the parks in other districts where it is paid parking. I know of what I speak, I was the caretaker and concessionaire in Whytecliff for 12 years of my life.