New proposal would require parking permits on residential Vancouver streets

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Vancouver transportation planners announced on Monday a proposed “Climate Emergency Parking Program,” which would, if approved, charge drivers for permits to park on the city’s residential streets.

The permit charges would be higher for cars deemed high polluters.

The heftiest fees would be applied to new gas-powered large SUVs or pickup trucks purchased in 2023 or later. Under the newly proposed rules, each owner of one of those vehicles would be required to pay a “pollution charge” of $1,000 a year for street parking.

Those who buy smaller gas-burning SUVs or sedans, starting with 2023 models, would have to pay $500 a year for street parking. Every other resident who regularly parks on the street and whose car doesn’t fall into one of those categories would, with a few exceptions, be charged $45 a year.

Non-residents would also be charged. The staff proposal suggests that visitors to Vancouver would not pay anything between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. But there would be a $3-a-night fee for overnight parking.

Vancouverites will be able to air their opinions on the proposed permit fees in an official survey being offered by the city between this week and July 5. The parking permit fees require approval from Vancouver City Council before they can be enacted. If passed, they would be in place next year.

The city’s transportation planners say the benefits of the new fees could include people choosing electric vehicles to avoid the higher permit fees. This, they say, would reduce emissions in the air.

The move comes as the city is also beginning to study the feasibility of a toll on entry into the city’s biggest business areas, downtown and Broadway, as part of the climate plan.

Vancouver to ask residents who want to park on any city street to get a permit

If the fees are implemented, the city will become the first in North America to require parking permits for every residential street within its boundaries.

Sydney, Australia, has a similar system, as does Paris. But, in North America, only Toronto comes close to the Vancouver proposal, with about 50 per cent of its residential streets requiring parking permits.

Independent Councillor Lisa Dominato said she worries the new parking fees will hurt lower-income residents, including people in apartments who don’t have any reserved off-street parking.

“It doesn’t feel like the right tool,” she said.

But Green Party candidate Adriane Carr said that while the fees may seem high to some residents, she believes opposition will die down once the new permitting system is in place and people see the benefits.

Ms. Carr added that she would like to see more emphasis in the city’s proposal on a benefit she saw when parking-permit fees were increased in the West End, where she lives. West End residents were then given the opportunity to decide how to use some of that revenue to improve their neighbourhood.

The staff proposal outlined Monday and described in the city survey says the approximately $60-million that would be collected through the permit fees over the first four years would help pay for other components of the city’s climate plan. Staff estimated that enforcing the parking plan would cost about $1-million a year.

Other components of the climate plan include improving sidewalks, adding trees and green space, building new electric-vehicle charging stations and creating new priority bus routes.

Vancouver’s transportation director, Paul Storer, said his department’s projections indicate that about 4,000 people would likely pay the extra pollution charges in the first year, out of the 20,000 new cars typically bought in Vancouver annually. (It’s expected that about half of the city’s car owners have garage space, giving them the option of avoiding on-street parking fees.)

Mr. Storer estimated that 2,500 drivers would be charged the $1,000 fee in the first year, and that another 1,500 would pay the $500 fee.

Vans that have been equipped for wheelchair use would be exempted from extra charges.

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