District of Squamish Downtown and Tourism-based Parking

Client: District of Squamish | 2025

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The District of Squamish is a growing municipality ideally situated on the scenic Sea-to-Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler, renowned for its stunning natural landscapes and outdoor recreational opportunities. The District is also undergoing significant change. With rapid population growth and a thriving tourism economy, parking has become increasingly limited. The District proposed a series of parking management measures to improve parking turnover and ensure that parking remains available Downtown and at tourism-based areas for all who need it, when they need it.

As Squamish’s population continues to expand and tourism flourishes, the demand for parking, especially in Downtown and other popular tourism-based areas, has outpaced the available spaces. To address these challenges, the District of Squamish proposed a series of parking management measures aimed at improving parking turnover and ensuring that parking remains available to all those who need it, when they need it. These measures were seen as essential for balancing the District’s parking supply while supporting housing, employment, and local businesses.

Recognizing the need for broad community input, the District prioritized public engagement to understand local priorities and concerns related to parking and to identify viable solutions that would serve the needs of both residents and visitors. Uplift Engagement Communications (Uplift) was engaged by the District to provide public engagement services.

Uplift developed a comprehensive What We Heard report, compiling input from a variety of channels, including meetings with key interest groups, social media comments, direct correspondence from interest groups, and a detailed community survey. The resulting report identified the parking challenges and needs of the community, which informed the development of updated parking management approaches in Downtown, at tourism-based locations, and within the SEAandSKY neighbourhood.

The What We Heard report was presented to the council on March 11, 2025. Based on the insights gathered from the public and interest groups, District Staff brought forward a recommendation to Council to implement a paid parking pilot project at Darrell Bay. This recommendation was fully supported by the Council, and the pilot project is slated to launch in summer 2025, continuing through to the end of 2026. The Darrell Bay Pilot Project will serve as an important test case, allowing the District to assess the feasibility of paid parking before extending similar initiatives to other locations.

View the full What We Heard Report.