A’hoy, an independent Gallant Avenue shop, sells some cool Deep Cove-branded merchandise. A popular new favourite (which is now sold out, by the way) is a T-shirt that reads:
“Welcome to Deep Cove, Now Please Leave.”
It’s tongue in cheek, of course, but come summertime when the Cove is clogged with traffic and parking is scarce, many locals get ticked.
That simmering frustration led to a District of North Vancouver staff report that noted: “Deep Cove’s scenic beauty and immense popularity with tourists, hikers, arts aficionados and boaters has created a steadily increasing demand for access. The district has heard from the community and has quantified the issues of limited parking spaces, pedestrian and driver safety issues, concern about emergency vehicle access, and, at the height of the summer season, frayed tempers and inappropriate behaviour.”
To fix the problem, the district came up with a unique made-in-Deep-Cove parking and access plan should make it easier to find a place to park during the busy summer season.
Back in February 2015, the district teamed up with SFU’s Centre for Dialogue to co-host a “deliberative dialogue session.” Around 100 stakeholders, who ranged from longtime local residents and business owners to outdoor enthusiasts, boaters and First Nations members, participated in the all-day session and together they came up with collaborative solutions to tackle access and parking problems in the area. From that a plan was drafted.
Council approved the plan and many of the “quick start” actions items identified were implemented for the summer season. It was the first time the district has used a deliberative dialogue session and the results were so positive that it’s using the same collaborative engagement process to devise a plan for the Delbrook lands.
“In essence, people that have a stake are in the same room and they hear that it can’t be everything to everybody and they come forward with ways to resolve it themselves,” explained
DNV’s Gavin Joyce, manager of engineering, parks and facilities.
So far, there have already been many initial parking solution victories during the initial phase of the parking plan, including a parking-permit system on Panorama Drive and deployment of a park ranger. “The park ranger was fantastic. She was able to work with both the businesses and the community and provide information for the whole Deep Cove area,” said Joyce.
Overflow parking at Myrtle Park and School District 44 schools also helped mitigate the parking chaos. The DNV also added a dozen new parking spots and added bike parking in the area. “And we added a lot of what I will call way-finding or information signs and event management. So those things went really well,” added Joyce.
In the coming months, Joyce said the DNV will look at continued funding for the park ranger and work with District 44 to renew agreements to use school parking lots for overflow parking for weekends. “And we’d like to incrementally look at more bike racks and signage for communication.”
Future and longer-range plans, which will require deeper dialogue with council, local residents, businesses, and other stakeholders, include the potential for pay parking in the area and exploring the feasibility of a new parking lot for the steady inflow of Quarry Rock and Baden Powell trail hikers.
So far, Joyce said the feedback has been positive, but it doesn’t mean that parking is no longer an issue.
“I mean that’s not to say we don’t have our challenges. It’s a very busy area which doesn’t have a lot of ingress and egress out; it’s basically at the dead end of a long cul-de-sac so it’s a challenge and there’s no additional capacity so it really is all around the management,” said Joyce, noting that they are also working with the DNV’s film co-ordinator to better manage local summer events.
“So with all of those things without a doubt the key actions were very well received, especially the park ranger who was able to co-ordinate a lot of different activities so we’re very happy with the past summer and hope for a repeat this summer,” he said noting that the lower Loonie should attract even more visitors. “We expect to see another very, very busy summer in Deep Cove and up the road.”
