NANAIMO -- The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) unanimously voted Tuesday night to allow homeless camping in limited areas of the region's parks overnight, with heavy restrictions.

“If we find that homeless people are camping within our parks, they need to be following the rules and living within those restrictions,” says RDN Board Chair Ian Thorpe.

There over 150 parks within the RDN’s boundaries, and following the new bylaw, approximately 77 per cent of them will prohibit homeless camping. 

“This is not designed to encourage people to come and camp in our parks," says Thorpe. "That’s not what we want and that’s not what we intended."

The update to the RDN’s parks bylaw was made to comply with a B.C. Supreme Court decision made in 2018, which allows homeless people to camp in parks.

The Regional District of Nanaimo's restrictions for homeless camping in permitted parks include:

  • Camping hours between 7 p.m. – 9 a.m. in specified areas
  • Must dismantle and remove shelter, and cleanup any garbage left behind
  • Must camp away from any conservation zones
  • Camp cannot be located be within 30 metres of neighbouring residential property, playgrounds, pinic tables, organized play spaces or fields, trailways or bridges within parks and cannot be inside public parking lots

Other changes to the RDN Parks Use Bylaw include: a total ban on smoking, regulation of cannabis consumption and restrictions off-road vehicle use in some parks and trails.

Regional District staff say the restrictions will be enforced by RDN bylaw officers. In extreme cases the RCMP will also be called to assist bylaw officers.

The RDN modelled its new restrictions after amendments made to the City of Nanaimo's parks bylaw in March 2019.

A complete list of parks that prohibit overnight homeless camping in the Regional District of Nanaimo is below:

ELECTORAL AREA - A

  • Cedar Plaza Community Park
  • Cedar Skatepark
  • Fawcett Road Community Park
  • Glynneath Road Community Park
  • Kipp Road Community Park
  • MacMillan Road Community Park
  • Thelma Griffith Community Park
  • Woodridge Road Community Park

 

ELECTORAL AREA - B

  • Blue Heron Community Park
  • Bluewhale Community Park
  • Captain Ahab's Terrace Community Park
  • Cardale Road Community Park
  • Clamshell Drive Community Park
  • Coast Road Community Park
  • Decourcy Drive Community Park
  • Dodd Narrows Community Park
  • Dunlop Lane Community Park
  • Hummingbird Community Park
  • Huxley Community Park
  • Joyce Lockwood Community Park
  • Link Bay Road Community Park
  • Malaspina Galleries Community Park
  • Paisley Place Community Park
  • Pequod Crescent Community Park
  • Pilot Bay Community Park
  • Queequeg Place Community Park
  • Rollo McClay Community Park
  • Sea Fern Lane Community Park
  • Stalker Road Community Park
  • The Strand Community Park
  • Town-Ho End Community Park
  • Descanso Bay Regional Park

 

ELECTORAL AREA - C

  • Extension Miners Community Park
  • Heather Way Community Park
  • Riverbend Road Community Park
  • Riverbend Community Park
  • South Forks Road Community Park
  • Twilight Way Community Park
  • Virostko Road Community Park

 

ELECTORAL AREA - E

  • Amelia Crescent Community Park
  • Arbutus Grove Community Park
  • Blueback Drive Community Park
  • Brickyard Community Park
  • Carmichael Road Community Park
  • Claudet Creek Community Park
  • Claudet Road Community Park
  • Craig Creek Estuary Community Park
  • Crowsnest Lane Community Park
  • Davenham Road Community Park
  • Dolphin Lake Community Park
  • Dolphin Marsh Community Park
  • Es-hw Sme~nts Community Park
  • Henley Place Community Park
  • Highland Road Community Park
  • Jack Bagley Community Park
  • Nanoose Road Community Park
  • Park Place Community Park
  • Redden Road Community Park
  • Richard Place Community Park
  • Rowland Road Community Park
  • Rumming Road Community Park
  • Schooner Ridge Community Park
  • Stone Lake Drive Community Park
  • Beachcomber Regional Park
  • Moorecroft Regional Park

 

ELECTORAL AREA - F

  • Allsbrook Road Community Park
  • Brooklin Lane Community Park
  • Coombs Station Community Park
  • Errington Community Park
  • French Creek School Community Park
  • Harris Crescent Community Park
  • Kerr Road Community Park
  • Little Qualicum Falls Community Park
  • Meadowood Community Park
  • Melon Road Community Park
  • Old Alberni Hwy Community Park

 

ELECTORAL AREA - G

  • Blue Water Place Community Park
  • Boultbee Drive Community Park
  • Brookfield Windridge Community Park
  • Centre Crescent Community Park
  • Cinnamon Sedge Matuka Community Park
  • Columbia Drive East Side Community Park
  • Dalmatian Drive Community Park
  • Dashwood Community Park
  • Hawthorne Rise Community Park
  • Kaye Peterson Community Park
  • Kaye Rivers Edge Community Park
  • Kaye Road Community Park
  • Matuka Drive Community Park
  • Miller Road Community Park
  • Maple Lane Community Park
  • Neden Way Community Park
  • Peterson Rascal Community Park
  • Quails Landing Way
  • Riley Sanika Community Park
  • San Malo Crescent Community Park
  • Stanhope Community Park
  • Stormwater Community Park
  • Sumar Lane Community Park
  • Top Bridge Community Park
  • Little Qualicum River Estuary RCA
  • Dashwood Community Park
  • French Creek Community Park
  • River’s Edge Community Park

 

ELECTORAL AREA - H

  • Deep Bay Creek Community Park
  • Henry Morgan Community
  • Park Lions Community Park
  • Wildwood Place Community Park
  • Horne Lake Regional Park