Deep Cove Community Dialogue

The February 21, 2015 Deep Cove Parking & Access Community Dialogue provided a unique opportunity for residents and other stakeholders to collaborate with the District of North Vancouver in shaping public policy. This deliberative dialogue was independently designed and facilitated by the Civic Engage program at Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Dialogue in partnership with the District of North Vancouver. The ultimate goal was to create a made-in-Deep Cove plan to address the local parking crisis, and ultimately to explore issues of identity for a community struggling to reconcile characteristics of both a small village centre and a world class tourist destination.

A key finding in the post-dialogue survey was that participants strongly supported the notion that Deep Cove should be shared by residents and visitors, leading to a series of specific and actionable recommendations. 93% of participants indicated a desire to participate in similar events in the future based on their experience at the dialogue, and almost three quarters indicated their perspectives were impacted as a result of hearing the views of others.

The District of North Vancouver Council has since passed two motions to act on participant recommendations, including permanent resident-only-parking in the most affected area, sharing additional parking passes with residents of Indian Arm, improving wayfinding and the use of overflow lots, requiring parking management strategies for large summer events, and investigating options to implement paid parking in major hot spots.