Park board staff looks to charge for parking at Spanish Banks beach
Year-round parking fees at Spanish Banks Beach Park's five parking lots could be coming.
On Monday, the Vancouver park board will consider a staff recommendation that a $1 an hour fee be charged to anyone occupying one of the beach park's 744 parking spots from July 1 until the end of September. Staff also believe drivers should pay to park during the slower months but are leaving it up to parks board to decide how much to charge.
This would mean that the parking lots would no longer be available to people in camper vans, unless they pay.
Drivers arriving when the lots open at 6 a.m. and leaving before 9 a.m. won't have to pay. The lots will close at 10 p.m.
The staff report asks that this be a pilot project to be reassessed in the second quarter of 2025 and that $1 an hour also be charged for people parking along Northwest Marine Drive adjacent to the parking lots. Staff also suggest nearby residents consider resident-only parking to stop people parking in front of their homes.
There is no regular bus service along Northwest Marine Drive apart from in the summer when the No. 42 operates on weekends from Alma and Broadway to Spanish Banks.
“The proposed plan for paid parking presents a solution for the intersecting goals of maintaining accessibility to Spanish Banks, mitigating traffic impacts in the neighbourhood, improving Spanish Banks pedestrian/traffic safety risks, improving site security/safety through parking enforcement, encouraging alternative transportation modes or carpooling with positive environmental impacts, implementing one of the items from the board-approved Think Big Revenue Strategy, and providing an additional funding source to invest in the service levels across the park board spaces and facilities,” the report states.
Staff expect the park board will make $70,000 from parking at Spanish Banks during summer months.