The District of Squamish council has decided to move forward with a paid-parking pilot project at Darrell Bay in time for the summer season.
The decision was made at a committee of the whole meeting on March 11 and means that paid-parking will not move forward in downtown squamish until at least 2027.
In December 2024, council agreed to prioritize the implementation of a paid-parking pilot project at several tourism-based locations around town.
These locations included Darrell Bay, the Squamish Adventure Centre, Smoke Bluffs parking lot, Perth Drive trailhead area, the north end of Tantalus Road, Mamquam Dike access west of Government Road near the Public Works Yard and Fisherman's Park.
District manager of transportation, Brent McMurtry, told council that following an online community survey, which ran for seven weeks, staff were recommending moving forward with implementing paid-parking only at Darrell Bay.
“These [parking lots] are predominantly used by visitors to Shannon Falls and the Sea to Sky Gondola as overflow parking in the peak summer months. Additionally the parking area closest to the water is used by WLNG employees who are accessing their worksite,” McMurtry said.
“The recommendations include peak season parking rate of $3 an hour, up to a max of $10 a day, and this is consistent with what we see at parks throughout Metro Vancouver with paid parking, as well as reflects the parking rates of $10 a day cap seen at the Sea to Sky Gondola.”
McMurtry said that staff recommended introducing a resident parking pass system as an opportunity for them to learn how that system could work.
“Additionally, we're recommending to operate year-round with paid parking required throughout the low season at a reduced rate,” he said.
McMurtry said that part of the rationale behind this decision was to allow staff to see the data during the low season.
The paid-parking would also be enforced by a third-party operator and not bylaw officers.
“Assuming the staff recommendation for the pilot project is supported, we would engage a contractor to operate and enforce the pilot parking system and have that in place in advance of the summer months,” McMurtry said.
The pilot project would end in 2026, with staff expected to return to council with an evaluation in early 2027.
Community survey results
District public engagement specialist, Fiona Rayner, gave a rundown of the results from the community survey, which ran from Dec. 3, 2024 to Jan 22, 2025.
“As we know, the District of Squamish is in transition and parking availability has become more of a challenge in Squamish as the community has experienced significant growth over the last 10 years,” Rayner said.
“Parking pressure is most notable downtown where land is limited and valuable and tourism is a key industry bringing visitors to our community.
“Community input has been gathered to help shape the District of Squamish’s parking management plan which aims to address these challenges particularly regarding parking availability.”
The survey received 2,675 respondents, with 42% aged 30 to 39.
Rayner said that key themes from the survey were:
- Challenge with the cost of living in Squamish, and that paying for parking would further exacerbate affordability challenges
- Concerns about where downtown employees will park
- Business owners being worried about a potential loss in revenue due to customers choosing to shop where parking is free
- Challenges with transportation alternatives, such asthe frequency of buses and biking infrastructure concerns, including safety
- Frustrations with the amount of parking provided by new developments
- The need to specifically address the parking challenges and associated needs of seniors and people with mobility issues
Of the respondents, 74% said they “would avoid tourism-based areas if they had to pay for parking, with many stating they would avoid these parking areas by parking elsewhere or simply not visiting,” Rayner said.
“Respondents expressed that these are places they frequently visit and restricting access would feel exclusionary, negatively affecting their mental and physical health.”
Of the tourism-based locations announced in December, respondents rated the Squamish Adventure Centre, Darrell Bay and Smoke Bluffs as the most effective locations for tourism-based paid parking.
Mamquam Dike, Fisherman’s Park and the north end of Tantalus Road were rated the least.
Around 10% of survey respondents were downtown business employees and 3% were downtown business owners (approximately 80 respondents).
Rayner said that over three quarters of those noted that “parking shortages are currently an issue for their customers with 82% not having dedicated customer parking spaces.”
If paid-parking were to move ahead, a common theme amongst all respondents was a desire for a local pass system.
Council comments
Despite agreeing that the paid-parking pilot project should go ahead, the specifics on exactly how were tougher for the council to come to a resolution on.
In the end, council voted unanimously to move forward with paid-parking at Darrell Bay, however, without a resident pass, meaning that all who parked there would have to pay.
“I'm hesitant on what value we add from adding a resident pass system to the pilot project,” Coun. Jenna Stoner said.
“I did hear from staff that there's an unknown on what the cost of implementing would do, so depending on the agreement with the provider. So, I think that given that there are other alternatives relatively close by, both free or paid—included in your pass at the gondola—and or free across the street that it's cleaner just to make this a paid parking lot, generally.”
Mayor Armand Hurford said he wanted to remind community members that the decision to just implement paid-parking at Darrell Bay was as a result of their input.
“I do want all of us at this table and tuning in or watching this in retrospect, to refer back to this report that we received here, and [see] that we are taking action in the form of studying,” he said.
“But in the form of impacting the performance of the parking in downtown and SEAandSKY, we are choosing to step back until 2027 to have more data at the request of the public on the feedback we've received here.
“So when we leave this meeting, and we talk to the community about the concerns around parking downtown, we need to be clear, that's what happened. I'm comfortable taking that step, given that was the feedback, but community, this is your feedback, and we're acting upon it now, which does mean not taking steps to address it until 2027 in a meaningful way.”
Coun. Stoner made an additional motion for council to direct staff to “scope improvements to accessible parking downtown and implement low barrier solutions where feasible, or bring them back to future budget discussions if needed.”
Stoner said that it was an important part of the feedback council received from the community survey and members of the community had the right to have access to accessible parking.
“While I appreciate it was a small number of the respondents, I think the vast majority of folks who needed accessible parking identified that what is available to them either sometimes or rarely meets the needs that they have,” she said.
“At some point, unfortunately, the vast majority of us will have accessibility challenges, and so it's not just addressing those who have had to respond to the survey at that point in time, but we will all, at some point in time, have to use those accessible parking spaces for various reasons.
“So I think it's important for us to make sure that there's ample accessible parking … and that we address that sooner than 2027.”
Her motion was also carried unanimously.
To read the Paid Parking Update report visit the
