Pay parking planned for eight Vancouver community centres and golf courses | Daily Hive

Pay parking planned for eight Vancouver community centres, parks, and golf courses

Parking lot at Trout Lake Community Centre. (Google Maps)

The cost to park a vehicle at select parks and facilities operated by the Vancouver Park Board could cost more starting in the near future.

On Monday evening, after amendments, Park Board commissioners approved the recommendations made by their staff to begin the planning and consultation process for a pilot project that expands pay parking to more locations. It was approved in a 6-1 vote, with ABC commissioner Marie-Claire Howard casting the sole opposition vote.

A total of eight locations could see the implementation of pay parking later in 2025 over two phases.

This could begin with the summer implementation phase for the five locations of Hillcrest Community Centre, Trout Lake Community Centre/Trout Lake Park (John Hendry Park), Kerrisdale Community Centre, Hastings Community Centre, and New Brighton Park and Outdoor Pool.

Then in the fall, pay parking could be expanded to the three locations of Langara Golf Course, Fraserview Golf Course, and VanDusen Botanical Garden.

You might also like:

Park Board staff originally requested that commissioners delegate the responsibility for setting the fees to the Park Board’s general manager.

However, the commissioners instead approved a direction to request their staff that prior to implementation, they report back for final approval, with an implementation plan that addresses “concerns regarding equity, barriers to service, consistency, and impacts to programming.” This also effectively provides the commissioners with the final approval on whether the pilot project of expanded pay parking locations should proceed.

Staff will also report back on pay parking coming to the two golf courses and VanDusen, after the full cost recovery models for both are completed.

Additionally, staff will report back on options for the Park Board to retain parking revenue to directly fund capital or operating expenses related to the Vancouver’s parks and recreation system, as opposed to being diverted to the municipal government’s general revenues.

“It’s not that I don’t trust staff to implement this effectively, but I just want to understand what the tools are available to staff to mitigate unintended consequences and better understand what implementation each of these very unique sites is going to be applied,” said independent commissioner Laura Christensen during the deliberations.

“I know that the public is much more open to paying fees if they know that their money is going to supporting parks and recreation services. So the current approach just puts these parking fees into general City revenue that could fund anything from water mains to the Mayor’s Office. So, I think we should be looking to link our revenues to our facilities as much as possible.”

Park Board staff estimate the pilot project spanning the eight expansion locations could result in net additional parking revenue of up to $3 million per year.

vandusen botanical garden parking lot vancouver

Parking lot at VanDusen Botanical Garden. (Google Maps)

The pilot project is part of staff’s broader proposed Park Board Parking strategy, with a decision on this overall city-wide strategy now deferred until the pilot project plan is finalized and options are identified to retain the parking revenue.

Generally, under the strategy, pay parking will be implemented for lots with a high utilization, defined as over 85 per cent occupancy during peak periods. For such locations, there could also be increases in the fees.

Lots with medium parking demand, defined as occupancy rates of between 60 per cent and 85 per cent during peak periods, will also see paid parking, although it could be phased.

There are also considerations around how accessible these lots are to alternative modes of transportation, such as bike lanes and public transit. Lots with poor access to alternative modes are more likely to see paid parking and/or higher fees, while those with both limited access and high or medium demand may receive on-site improvements to support alternative transportation options.

The intent of the broader strategy is to perform “good parking management,” while also increasing revenue opportunities to support Vancouver’s parks and recreation system.

However, concerns were raised over how this could impact low-income individuals, including seniors who may not be able to walk or bike, as well as the many volunteers of Vancouver’s recreational programs.

For many youth in team sports, the only feasible way is to arrive by vehicle, given that they have large bags of equipment.

Kevin Gilliam, a director and member of the program and finance committees of the Trout Lake Community Centre, told the commissioners that these new parking fees could deter people from using the facilities and participating in the programs.

“Vancouver is already expensive and parking fees can add a barrier to participating in community and attending events held at the centre. People who work out multiple times a week need to pay for parking on top of their membership, making their total cost exceed that of a private gym, defeating the purpose of an accessible public centre,” said Gilliam during the meeting.

“People are beyond stretched financially and the community centre is a place where they can attend affordably. Paid parking could prevent them from attending recreation, health and social programs we offer.”

Pay parking machine. (Vancouver Park Board)

According to the Park Board, it operates 180 parking lots across Vancouver, including just over a dozen lots with pay parking, including at Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth Park, and western beaches. The most recent expansion was pay parking for the lots at Spanish Banks Beach starting in Summer 2024.

In 2024, these existing pay parking locations across the city generated $9.5 million, which is the Park Board’s second highest revenue source after program fees.

For a detailed breakdown of the Park Board’s parking revenues, in 2023, this includes $8.6 million at destination parks — with almost half during the summer months. Another $1.6 million came from community parks, while $500,000 was collected from community centres.

“In the biggest picture, cars take up a ton of space in our city and the paved asphalt that goes mile, acre by acre, hectare by hectare across the city, it impedes so much growth and life in our city,” said Green commissioner Tom Digby.

“We have to start accounting for the parking spaces in our city and people, who use this luxury of having an acre of paved asphalt waiting for their 2,000 lb. vehicle just to show up, have to acknowledge there is a public price to that, that all the rest of us pay, especially those people who don’t have any cars at all. So people who use asphalt for parking should pay for it in general.”

You might also like: