Pay parking at Granville Island sees rate hikes and expanded hours

Pay parking at Granville Island sees rate hikes and significantly expanded hours

A parking lot at Granville Island. (Google Maps)

Starting in May 2024, expect higher rates of up to $5 per hour for pay parking at Granville Island, along with extended pay parking hours spanning basically all daytime hours — earlier into the morning and well into the evening.

Since 2019, there has been some form of pay parking at Granville Island’s parking lots as a measure to better manage high parking demand and ease traffic congestion, as drivers are known to circle the island searching for a free parking spot. This ended decades-long free parking across all hours at Granville Island.

Over the past five years, except for the brief free parking period early on in the pandemic, pay parking has been in effect for seven hours daily from 11 am to 6 pm. Parking remained free between 6 pm and 11 am.

You might also like:

Pay parking rates starting in 2019 were $2 per hour on weekdays and $3 per hour on weekends and statutory holidays. Since 2021, the rates were increased to $3 per hour on weekdays and $4 per hour on weekdays and holidays from May 1 to September 30 during the peak season, and $2 per hour on weekdays and $3 per hour on weekdays and holidays from October 1 to April 30 during the low season.

However, that is about to change beginning in early May 2024, with Granville Island expanding its pay parking hours to 13 hours daily — from 9 am to 10 pm.

Additionally, a new pay parking rate structure with variable rates depending on the time of day will be introduced.

For the peak season between May 1 and September 30, pay parking will now be $3 per hour from 9 am to 6 pm on weekdays, $5 per hour from 9 am to 6 pm on weekends, and $1 per hour from 6 pm to 10 pm on both weekdays and weekends.

For the low season between October 1 and April 30, pay parking will now be $2 per hour from 9 am to 6 pm on weekdays, $4 per hour from 9 am to 6 pm on weekends, and $1 per hour from 6 pm to 10 pm on both weekdays and weekends.

In addition to supporting traffic management, CMHC Granville Island told Daily Hive Urbanized the changes to the pay parking system will provide Granville Island with much-needed additional revenue for its operations.

“Expanding the hours that pay parking is in effect is intended to ensure that more parking is available for visitors, so they can spend less time looking for parking and more time enjoying the Island,” reads a statement to Daily Hive Urbanized.

“As one of two main sources of revenue for Granville Island, pay parking will also provide increased revenue to support Granville Island operations (events, festivals, cleaning, parties, maintenance, theatre, etc.). We continue to encourage visitors to take other forms of transportation to visit Granville Island, including ferries, transit, cycling and walking.”

CMHC Granville Island is the local operating entity of the federal government’s Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, which owns the island. As a federally-owned property, it does not have to comply with the City of Vancouver’s policies, regulations, and review processes.

Over the years since the pandemic, even with pay parking, there have been growing reports on social media of worsening traffic congestion in Granville Island, with drivers unable to find a parking space, especially during peak times.

Granville Island should be car free. How are we still not there yet? Build a parkade on 4th underground and let’s go.

— Karm Sumal (@KarmSumal) June 4, 2023

Sunny summer Saturday at one of Vancouver’s premiere tourist parking lots.
Time to reduce the number of cars on Granville Island pic.twitter.com/1kP6A3LWXR

— Thomas Wade (@thomasdub) June 3, 2023

Took the ferry over to Granville Island and you get the pleasure of walking out to the middle of a parking lot, but let’s be honest 70% of @granville_isle is devoted to car parking and it’s cheaper to park for an hour (50% cheaper on weekdays!) than to take the ferries. pic.twitter.com/zwYesdQ2ig

— Blair (@blurr_65) March 16, 2024

Imagine how much better business in Granville Island would be if we doubled the number of shops by reclaiming space from cars.

This is what I think of when I think of Granville Island – parking lots, kids sandwiched between moving and parked cars, pedestrians dodging drivers… pic.twitter.com/rwUEJvUUF4

— Peter Waldkirch 華彼德 (@pwaldkirch) June 2, 2019

There are roughly 1,200 vehicle parking stalls across Granville Island. The single largest use on the island is vehicular circulation and parking, which accounts for over 25% of the island’s land use.

But according to CMHC’s 2017-created Granville Island 2040 master plan, the longer-term vision is to replace much of the island’s existing parking lots with pedestrian-oriented and event-friendly public spaces, and new programming and attractions. The master plan also calls for the potential for off-island parkades within very close walking proximity, improved pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure, the construction of an elevator/staircase tower to reach Granville Street Bridge’s new pedestrian and cycling pathways, and significantly improved public transit connections, such as a revival of the False Creek South streetcar reaching SkyTrain’s Olympic Village and Main Street-Science World stations.

Early this year, CMHC Granville Island reached completion on its first major redevelopment in decades — the conversion of the “Chain & Forge” building from its longtime uses as an indoor and outdoor parking area to leasable space for up to seven new additional businesses (about 9,000 sq ft of new retail and restaurant uses) and a public plaza. This project was identified as a priority under the master plan.

Previous condition:

Previous condition of the Chain & Forge building at Granville Island. (Google Maps)

New condition:

Artistic rendering of the redeveloped Chain & Forge building at Granville Island. (CMHC Granville Island)

You might also like: