As B.C. continues reopening, Lions Bay parking restrictions remain

Gary Parsons typically visits Lions Bay Beach Park with his kids "a few times" each summer. 

"It is one of the nicest beaches in Metro Vancouver. Water is calm, warm with beautiful views," he told V.I.A. in an email. 

But when Parsons and his family drove up the Sea to Sky highway for a beach day last month, the afternoon ended in disappointment rather than a refreshing dip in the Howe Sound waters. They arrived at the beach's public, paid parking lot, only to discover it was closed, with concrete blocks preventing motorists from entering and signage designating nearby street parking as permit only. 

"We were disappointed and left," he wrote. "Lions Bay practically closed its beaches to outsiders by this parking situation." 

The exclusive village municipality, nestled between West Vancouver and Squamish, has a land area of just over 2.5 square kilometres and a population of 1,334, as per the 2016 census. The Village of Lions Bay opted to close all of its beach parks, trails and open spaces - such as parking lots, playgrounds and public washrooms - in March, amidst the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

While the majority of those facilities have since reopened as B.C. progresses further into Phase 3 of its restart plan, several of Lions Bay's parking lots remain closed, while parking penalties have been "substantially increased." With many of the municipality's streets now requiring a permit to park, access to beaches and hiking trails for non-Lions Bay residents arriving by car is limited - something some visitors, like Parsons, perceive as unfair. 

In an email, Lions Bay Mayor Ron McLaughlin said, "We are a friendly and welcoming community. We try our best to accommodate as many non-residents as we can so that the amenities our Village has can be shared."

He continued, "We are not the only small community with a capacity management problem. If more non-residents came by Translink there would be less parking scarcity. Our beach park and the beach itself have a very small footprint. Social distancing is a genuine problem. From time to time our Bylaw Officers have turned people away. They do not differentiate between locals or non-residents. At capacity is at capacity." 

Lions Bay Beach Park is currently open, but has a maximum occupancy of 100 persons at any given time. As Parsons experienced, the Lions Bay Beach parking lot currently remains closed in an effort "to help manage this restriction," according to the Village's website.   

(These concerns appear to be warranted - Vancouver Coastal Health added Lions Bay Beach Park to its list of public COVID-19 exposures this week. The agency urges anyone who visited the park on the specified dates at the end of July to self-monitor for symptoms.)

 

Parking near Brunswick Beach, however, was reinstated at the end of July after closing down at the municipality's request earlier this year. The reopening of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure-controlled Interchange Parking Area - which encompasses approximately 16 parking spots - came in response to public feedback on the matter, as well as "the opening of the province and greater access to beaches and trails for the general public," read a municipality update to residents, dated July 17. 

Prior to the lot's reopening, Lions Bay residents were invited to share feedback as part of a survey discussing the possibility of increasing parking availability in the Brunswick Beach area. 

While some respondents opposed the idea of more public parking in their neighbourhood (“Brunswick Beach should be a gated community," wrote one), others voiced support for an increase. 

“As a resident who uses most of the (North Shore) for my own convenience, we should pay it forward by providing adequate access to natural beauty that surrounds us ... We must share, as many communities share with us," read another comment. 

A short distance south of Brunswick Beach, Kelvin Grove Beach Park remains closed due to the construction of a Waste Water Treatment Plant. As a result, the parking lot at Kelvin Grove is also closed, while street parking in the area - both below and above the highway - requires a permit.

But when it comes to the Kelvin Grove area, capacity issues related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are not the only public safety concerns pressing the tiny municipality this summer. In recent years, nearby terrain has become a popular spot for cliff jumping - an activity not endorsed by Lions Bay officials. 

"There is no reason to open the KG parking lot until (the Waste Water Treatment Plant) project is done and the access to the park is open again," the Village of Lions Bay wrote in a "Parking Hot Spot Update" posted last week. "In the interim, anyone parking in lower Kelvin Grove without a permit is presumably walking down the train tracks to the cliff jumping site."

According to the municipality, CN Police turned away 40 people on July 11 alone, most of whom were presumably attempting to cross the tracks to access the cliffs. 

The following week, the Lions Bay Fire Department also responded to a call regarding a 24-year-old male who jumped off a 70-foot cliff while under the influence of ketamine and alcohol, officials said. Firefighters were then called to a second "less serious" incident the next day. 

"Our Fire Department attends these calls and are paid by us," explained a weekly municipal update to residents. "The Village does not get Provincial compensation for these calls as they would for highway incidents."

It's not just beaches and seaside cliffs that are becoming more difficult for outsiders to visit, either. Access to popular hiking trails within the municipality was also restricted when the MOTI imposed a 30-minute limit on the rest area parking lot at Tunnel Point, near the Tunnel Bluffs trailhead, three months ago, effectively closing the lot to hikers. Since this measure was implemented, online hiking resources now encourage hikers to search for parking within Lions Bay - which has become increasingly challenging to find without a permit. 

 

As McLaughlin told residents in a video update posted in June, the municipality's pre-pandemic parking measures were "ineffective." 

"The village was being taken advantage of, as casual visitors did what they wanted to, parked where they wanted to and scoffed at our low parking fines," he said.

"Our hope is that sooner rather than later, awareness of our designated parking is spread throughout all social media, hiking literature and websites and word of mouth. COVID-19 has resulted in a desire by casual visitors to be in open spaces close to home. We understand this. We are not the only community with capacity management problems caused by being a desired location."

McLaughlin continued, "There is no appetite for council to close the village to casual guests in terms of parking, using our facilities, the beaches or accessing provincial trails. We will try to accommodate as many as we can. But what we won't do is put casual visitors desires ahead of those who are our own residents, or our residents' safety."

Despite that message, Parsons said the parking situation at Lions Bay Beach Park left him and his family feeling "unwanted" in the community.

The "people of Lions Bay are a bunch of snobs who feel they own BC beaches," he wrote. "They feel because they can afford expensive houses, and we can’t. They are superior with the exclusive right to the beach." 

Parsons said he'd like to see the provincial government involved in regulating what he claims is an unfair issue. The "municipality of Lions Bay doesn’t have jurisdiction over BC beaches," he expressed. 

For more information about visitor parking in Lions Bay, visit the Village's website. 

- With a file from Ben Bengston, North Shore News