At a meeting today, June 3, the District of North Vancouver council will vote on introducing pay parking at Deep Cove Park, Panorama Park, and Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen. The measure, aimed at managing peak season parking demand, would set the fee at $3.00 per hour. The parking program will be implemented this summer.
The proposed bylaw changes also include an expansion of the DNV Resident Pay Parking in Parks Exemption Pass. This pass is for $10 for 2024 and would now cover Deep Cove Park, Panorama Park, and Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen, in addition to the existing coverage for Lynn Canyon Park.
Additionally, the plan would waive hourly parking fees for vehicles parked in designated disability spaces. Pay parking would be implemented during the peak season, which runs from March 1 to October 31. Outside of these dates, parking at these locations will remain free.
Following a successful two-year pilot program, the District first introduced pay parking at Lynn Canyon Park. This initiative, approved at the January 23, 2023, Council meeting, marked the District’s first use of pay parking to manage parking demand in its parks. At the same meeting, the Council directed staff to develop similar programs for Deep Cove Park and Panorama Park and to explore options for Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen.
The new pay parking program would include Deep Cove Park, Panorama Park, and Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen, all of which experience significant parking demand during peak seasons. Key elements of the plan are below:
- Locations:
- Panorama Park
- Deep Cove Park: west parking lot (Naughton at Rockcliffe) and east parking lot (Rockcliffe near Raeburn)
- Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen: excluding the boat launch area and “Little Cates” (designated for two-hour time-limited parking)
- Pay Season: March 1 to October 31
- Pay Hours: 8 am to 8 pm
- Hourly Fee: $3.00 per hour, consistent with Lynn Canyon Park
- Maximum Parking Duration:
- Panorama Park: 3 hours (8 am – 8 pm)
- Deep Cove Park (West): 4 hours (8 am – 8 pm)
- Deep Cove Park (East): No limit
- Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen: Mix of 3 hours and no limit
- Resident Pass: The $10 pass will cover the three new locations for 2024. Passes purchased earlier in the year for Lynn Canyon Park will extend to the additional parks.
- Disability Parking: Waived hourly fees for vehicles with a valid SPARC BC permit.
- TWN Access: Ongoing engagement with Tsleil-Waututh Nation regarding park access in line with the Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen Cooperation Agreement.
The anticipated annual revenue from these parking fees ranges between $100,000 and $400,000 for Deep Cove and Panorama Parks and $300,000 and $800,000 for Cates Park/Whey-ah-Wichen.
I hope people that don’t have Smart phones are able to use the pay parking.
Are $10 passes available for City of North Vancouver residents?? or only District residents?
As a resident who live very close to Cates Park, I’m very unhappy with the decision to enact pay parking there. What is the purpose???? Is it a revenue generation grab, or is it an attempt to reduce parking congestion for residents and visitors?
To be clear, I totally understand the need to reduce parking in Deep Cove and to get more people to use public transit to the area. It is a nightmare there and something needed to be done. Your solution makes sense for that location.
That said, exactly the opposite is true in Cates Park. Consider these differences:
1) Deep Cove is swamped with visiting cars every weekend and most days during the summer. Cates Park has plenty of parking. Currently the only time it overflows into our neighbourhood on Roche Point Drive is on sunny on weekends in the summer. On those days, our street is lined with overflow cars.
2) If you look at your stats, you will find that at least five or 10, maybe 20 times more cars go to Deep Cove than go to Cates Park. The majority stay for a short period of time, probably 30 minutes to two hours. On the contrary, visitors to Cates Park typically stay several hours and on weekends, many come early in the morning and stay for six or eight hours.
3) your goal of increasing the number of people coming by transit is laudable. However, the demographic advocates Park is extremely different than what you have in Deep Cove. A significant number of the people who come to Cates bring their entire families and extended families for the day. Many celebrations and gatherings take place there. It is usual to have five or six families picnicking together with barbecues, dogs, sun shelters, plastic kayaks, rafts, soccer, frisbee etc. games. And let’s not forget that many of them bring their babies and little young children. This is a completely different demographic than Deep Cove area. Do you really think these people are going to drag all their paraphernalia onto a bus? And what about others who park their cars for the day, so they can join their friends who launched a boat at the boat ramp.
My point is that, with your new regulations, people who don’t want to pay for parking at Cates Park, will know park in our neighbourhood every day to get free parking. So you are creating for our neighbourhood the exact same problem you are trying to eliminate in Deep Cove. That doesn’t sound fair and it is completely unnecessary (other than a cash grab). It is also completely counterproductive.
Residents in our area are already preparing to deal with a massive influx of foot and bicycle traffic thanks to the Spirit Trail, which is apparently going to run through our street. We may not like it, but at least it could be called progress. However inundating our neighbourhood with people who want to park for free on our street because of your new pay parking policy is taking things from bad to worse.
Again, I reiterate that the purpose of this pay parking policy is to reduce congestion in Deep Cove, not to create the exact same problems you have been dealing with in Deep Cove in other residential areas.
Andrew Barber-Starkey
306 Roche Point Drive
604-983-8071
THEY DON’T LISTEN. We are just wasting our time.