The District of Squamish is seeking public input as it develops a plan to manage Downtown and tourism-based parking. The community is invited to provide input and express individual parking needs and challenges that will help to inform the development of a Parking Management Plan. A community survey is now open at letstalksquamish.ca/parking-management. The survey includes questions specific to: Downtown residents; Downtown business owners; employees of Downtown businesses; residents of SeaANDSky; and the broader community and neighbouring areas.
“The community has asked us to take action on parking management and our challenge is to create a plan to manage increasing demand that considers many different interests and needs,” says District of Squamish Mayor Armand Hurford. “This phase of the project is about receiving input from the community to help shape a plan that will meet those needs.”
The District released a Downtown Parking Study in 2023 which assessed parking utilization changes since the last study was done in 2017. The report found that parking in Downtown Squamish averaged at about 67% utilization (meaning that 67% of the total number of spots were occupied) during weekdays, 76% utilization on weekends, and 88% utilization during peak periods. Utilization rates consistently above 85% can indicate a parking management issue. This generally requires introduction of measures to manage demand such as paid parking, increased bike parking, and greater support of other alternative modes of transportation such as transit.
The District is now exploring a series of parking management measures to ensure that parking remains available and accessible in Downtown Squamish. Input from residents will help shape details of a resident exempt program in certain areas, programs to meet the needs of Downtown businesses and their employees, locations for additional accessible parking spots and new loading zones, to name a few.
District staff will use the input to help develop a ‘Phased Parking Management Implementation Plan’ for Council’s consideration. District staff will use the input to help develop a ‘Phased Parking Management Implementation Plan’ for Council’s consideration. Following a Council motion on this topic in 2023, this draft plan will also explore recommendations for on-street paid parking in the highest demand areas of Downtown, and paid parking at tourism-focused locations.
Get involved:
Visit letstalksquamish.ca/parking-management to:
To learn more and to get involved, visit letstalksquamish.ca/parking-management.
December 3, 2024
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