The parking problems in the Cove are the exact same as they were 12 years ago, and the solutions are much the same too, commented David Wrinch following this week’s municipal council meeting. Councillors debated the merits and the realities of a variety of solutions put forward by the Municipal Infrastructure Committee, which took on the issue in the face of concerns raised about the rezoning of the Bowen Island Pub’s land. If the rezoning and construction project goes through, ten parking spots that are currently available will be temporarily inaccessible.
Among the recommendations put forward by the committee were the options to increase parking enforcement, a bylaw enforcement to include towing for cars parked illegally, engaging BC Ferries and Metro Vancouver in solving ferry-marshalling related parking issues, and exploring the possibility of developing a park and ride lot at the corner of Adams Road and Bowen Bay Road for commuters.
With all of these options on the table, Councillor Cro Lucas, the liaison to the Infrastructure Committee, added: There is no parking problem in the Cove, the only problem is a lack of free parking. Commuters are using commercial parking spots, crowding out free spots.
In a later interview, Lucas explained that the central issue is that of commuters parking on Trunk Road for entire days, making parking allocated for shops and restaurants in the lower Cove inaccessible.
“Every time there is any talk about the revitalization of the lower Cove the parking issue comes up, the merchants down there are always say there is nowhere for their patrons to park,” says Lucas. “You can almost never get a spot right out front of the Village Baker, yet there are 40 stalls that are almost always empty just a few minutes walk up the hill on Village Drive. There are 25 parking spots in the Crippen Park lot, which is just a five minute walk from Tuscany or the Snug, and a fairly short walk from the ferry as well, and this lot is almost always empty. There’s also the Rennaison lot right below the General Store. It costs $5 to park there, but it’s also virtually empty most of the time.”
Lucas adds that a simple solution is to simply add more parking in the lower Cove.
“We thought we had this solved with the expansion of the library parking lot, which would have added approximately 70 parking spaces, but that plan was sidetracked because it is right in the middle of heron nesting territory.”
In its report, the Infrastructure Committee recommended adding diagonal parking spaces along the north side of Trunk Road as another option.
“We could also put parking on a lot on Miller Road right beside the RCMP station,” says Lucas. “But would people use it? My favourite option is the creation of Park and Ride lots, that way we could increase the use of our bus service. The municipality has a number of small chunks of land at different parts of the island, such as at Bowen Bay and Adams Road, that could be used in this way.”
Council voted on a resolution asking municipal staff to investigate what would be required in order to set up such lots. When it came to the option of increasing enforcement, council was told that resources are too scarce, and people don’t pay their parking ticket anyways.
“Deciding to get stricter on enforcing parking regulations would be a political decision,” says Lucas. “And this year, we cut back on that in order to balance the budget.”
