Granville Island will no longer offer free parking during peak hours
The days of all-day free parking at Granville Island are soon coming to an end.
The popular tourist site will implement paid parking for all stalls beginning on June 1, 2019.
Visitors to Granville Island will have to pay:
- $3 per hour from May 1 to September 30
- $2 per hour from October 1 to April 30
Pay parking will be in effect from 11 am to 6 pm and free parking will still be available before 11 am and after 6 pm.
The Granville Island Parking Management Strategy notes that “changing the parking system will increase parking availability so that it is easier for drivers to find a stall.”
It says that having free parking in the popular tourist destination actually increased congestion because some drivers would circle the island to search for a free stall instead of paying for parking when they found an open spot.
Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation (CMHC), the federal crown corporation that owns and manages the popular Vancouver tourist and arts destination, noted in a proposal last spring that it planned to convert the remaining 600 free parking stalls on the island into meter parking, effectively making all parking on the island pay parking.
Currently, Granville Island has over 1,200 parking stalls, with three-hour free or pay parking accounting for about 75% of all parking stalls. The remaining stalls are for reserved parking, one-hour free parking, accessible parking, and other uses.
With files from Kenneth Chan.
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