Reply to PIBC's email from Jordan Lypkie, Parking Pilot Project Leader, sent Jan Fri Jan 30
Thank you for your considered responses. I can provide some background on how we developed the paid parking pilot approach and the benefits available to your organizations.
The need for paid parking at Hillcrest was clearly demonstrated through the data collection and analysis of the Park Board Parking Strategy. The lot is highly utilized and frequently at capacity – paid parking is simply the best practice for managing demand. Staff learned from early, targeted engagement that most users do not want to pay for parking, but that access and improvements that paid parking supports are important to them. As parking impacts almost all park and facility users, it would be unrealistic to engage everyone. To ensure we effectively manage parking operations and respond to increased demand, our decisions were led primarily by data and best practice.
After presenting the Strategy to the Park Board in April of last year, the Board directed staff to consult more closely with Community Centre Associations who we partner with through joint operating agreements. The final Strategy and the paid parking pilot were then approved by the Board in October 2025. The recommended approach for the pilot provides 3 hours of free parking for Community Centre patrons to support the public programming delivered by Community Centre Associations in partnership with the Park Board. Other services offered under the same roof were extended this benefit for clarity and consistency, understanding that users may access multiple services in one visit and administering free parking for some (but not all) services in this context would be difficult to implement and enforce. We had to ‘draw the line’ on free parking to ensure effective management and financial viability, and the outline of the community centre was the simplest and most feasible approach. Park users, including sport field user groups and permit holders, will be required to pay for parking.
I appreciate that the pilot brings change for your organizations and users. Paid parking is already in place at several downtown community centres, most City of Vancouver buildings, and many recreation facilities and destination parks across the region. To support your operations through this change while managing high demand parking, there are benefits we can extend. Reduced rate passes can be offered for fulltime staff and some volunteers. Taxes on parking bring the amount for these passes to around $40 (there is a 29% Parking Tax that goes to TransLink). We can accommodate a reasonable number of special events such as championships and tournaments with free parking. Finally, we are exploring improvements to drop-off areas and safety that will likely benefit your users.
I am happy to meet for clarification and to work through details on proposed number of reduced rate passes, accommodating special events, and parking lot improvements.