Cypress Park takes B.C. to court over paid parking petition

If you frequent the Cypress Park area — mainly the Nordic skiing portion — you may have found that parking is a bit of an issue.

Now, it’s become a legal battle, with Cypress Bowl Recreations, Ltd., which has owned the ski facilities and park since 1984, taking the province to court over whether it has the right to implement paid parking up the Hollyburn Access Road.

The battle hinges on a 1997 agreement with the B.C. government, which Cypress says gave it control of the road, that leads up to the resort’s Nordic skiing parking lot.

However, Cypress says when it tried to bring in paid parking along a few metres of the stretch, BC Parks took the signage down, saying the area is squarely in the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure.

In its petition, Cypress Bowl Recreations is asking that the court declare “the entire Hollyburn Access Road leading to the ‘Nordic Area’ of the Controlled Recreation Area of Cypress Bowl Recreations Limited Partnership, commencing at the intersection of Cypress Bowl Road and following until the end of ‘Parking Lot 4’, falls within the boundaries of Cypress Park established by the Province of British Columbia’s Order in Council No. 260, approved and ordered February 19, 1992.”

The case is set to go before the BC Supreme Court in November. Neither the Ministry of Transportation nor the Ministry of Environment — who are both named in the suit — have filed a response.