The Metro Vancouver Park Thread

[Migrant_Coconut]

Figure we need a new thread for this, not just General Discussion. Anyways:

Vancouver park board eyes planning Queen Elizabeth Park's future

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The Vancouver park board will consider developing a master plan for Queen Elizabeth Park.

The major public space, known for its mountain views and gardens, hasn’t changed much in decades, even as the surrounding Cambie Corridor area has experienced an explosion of townhouse and condo construction, and there will be more population growth in years ahead.

City staff are asking park board chair and commissioners to consider putting together a team that would, starting in mid-2020, begin talking to the public and outline future needs of the park.

In a letter to the park board for its meeting next week, board general manager Malcolm Bromley wrote about “significant changes to the Cambie Corridor, including the opening of the Canada Line in 2009 and the subsequent rezoning and densification of surrounding neighbourhoods.

“The majority of new and anticipated development around Queen Elizabeth Park consists of multi-unit residential buildings with little or no access to their own outdoor spaces,” he said.

Queen Elizabeth Park “needs to adapt and respond to an ever-changing context and consider how it will serve a rapidly growing neighbourhood of new and local park users.”

“I think it’s a great idea. The park has developed in sections over time,” said park board commissioner John Coupar, who has long been involved with the park’s Bloedel Conservatory. “I think there’s a lot to think about. There’s no children’s playground, for example, which is a little odd.....”

Also, the Smithe & Richards Park has started construction.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Stream restoration in Kitsilano up for approval:

Vancouver Park Board to revive Kitsilano creek that flows into English Bay

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The decades-long plan of daylighting the historical creek that once flowed through Tatlow Park and Volunteer Park in the Kitsilano neighbourhood is expected to be approved by the Vancouver Park Board next week.

Next week in a public meeting, Park Board commissioners will review the conceptual design of a restored natural creek that flows and empties out into English Bay.

Like most other streams that once flowed through Vancouver, at some point during the city’s early development, the stream through this area was buried, with only a small segment in Tatlow Park — south of Point Grey Road — retained.....

[svlt]

Very cool proposal. Looks like there are some natural environmental benefits that come from it as well as providing new landscape features for the general public.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Planning set to begin on new 6-acre park in Southeast False Creek

link

A decade after Southeast False Creek’s (SEFC) first public parks were constructed as part of the Olympic Village, the Vancouver Park Board is making the first steps to realize one of the area plan’s largest new post-2010 public space components, in an area located south of Science World.

Park Board commissioners on Tuesday evening are expected to approve a contract award to landscape architectural firm Space2place Design Inc. for work that involves drafting a conceptual public park plan and leading early public engagement...

(image not working for some reason)

[Migrant_Coconut]

City of Vancouver advancing first segment of 1-km-long, in-road stream on St. George Street

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A long-envisioned, in-road stream in East Vancouver is taking its first steps towards being realized, as the project has just entered the City of Vancouver’s public consultation process.

The so-called “rainway” along St. George Street was first envisioned in 2008 by a grassroots community group dedicated to seeing its implementation, and it was subsequently included in the municipal government’s 2013 Mount Pleasant Plan Implementation Package.

As first proposed by the group, the Mount Pleasant Plan calls for a stormwater feature along St. George Street between Kingsway and Great Northern Way — a length of 10 city blocks or about one km. It would narrow road space, generally on one side of the road, but meandering in certain locations where there is a full road closure.

There would be a naturalizing of the streetscape and drainage, including the incorporation of wetlands, with the stream fed by rainwater captured in local streets and sidewalks.

... Additionally, enhanced walking and cycling paths will be created along the route.

Currently, the city is planning to proceed with the northernmost half of the Mount Pleasant Plan’s rainway along St. George Street between East Broadway and Great Northern Way, spanning a length of about 500 metres.

For this first stretch of rainway, the timeline is to develop preliminary design options during Winter 2021, identify a preferred design concept in Spring 2021, finalize a detailed design by Fall 2021, and conduct construction between 2022 and 2023...

(If nobody wants this thread, please let me know - otherwise I'm just going to keep necro-ing it like an idiot over and over again.)

[scryer]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

(If nobody wants this thread, please let me know - otherwise I'm just going to keep necro-ing it like an idiot over and over again.)

No, it's okay. I'll participate and give it a fair chance .

I was excited about blue ways before but it's refreshing to see it being taken very seriously as a means to address rainwater overflow. I'm only slightly confused about it reaching Kingsway as the article doesn't specifically stipulate that it would be merging with current storm water solutions. Or if it is anticipated to connect to a future east-west waterway.

Personally, I hope that it drains into a stormwater/sewer system when reaching Kingsway because it would be straight up dumb to have it not drain anywhere at the end of it.

[officedweller]

That's the type of project that should be deferred during the current budget crisis.

Bad optics, but City staff are probably vying for dollars to get their own pet projects through.

[scryer]

Originally Posted by officedweller

That's the type of project that should be deferred during the current budget crisis.

Also true.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by scryer

Personally, I hope that it drains into a stormwater/sewer system when reaching Kingsway because it would be straight up dumb to have it not drain anywhere at the end of it.

If it flows down to GNW, wouldn't Kingsway be the uphill end?

Of course, that means there needs to be an outflow section at Emily Carr.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by officedweller

That's the type of project that should be deferred during the current budget crisis.

Bad optics, but City staff are probably vying for dollars to get their own pet projects through.

If it was in the Capital Budget, and supported by the electorate in the previous election, I don't think the City can move the money to revenue spending. If it's not spent on this project, I'm not sure what happens to unspent capital budgeted items, but I don't think it can be used as general revenue to run the city.

[officedweller]

I'm not sure of the budgetary mechanics/authorizations, buts thinking of the Granville Bridge Pedway that was scaled back/deferred.

[MIPS]

It looks like something that's really high maintenance.

[Migrant_Coconut]

A themed park for dogs is planned for Coopers' Park in downtown Vancouver

A new round of public consultation is being conducted on the redesign of the off-leash dog area at Coopers’ Park in North False Creek, converting it into a purpose-built, enclosed dog park.

The plan for the dog park already includes a secure fence around the off-leash area and the installation of a new public washroom.Public feedback is currently being sought on the programming within the dog park, such as amenities and play fixtures for dogs. The current space is worn down from high use and lacks physical boundaries, amenities, and facilities.

(link)

[jollyburger]

NIMBYs have something actually worth fighting over: pickleball

The pop, pop, pop of wiffle balls on paddles has prompted lawsuits and noise wars across North America, but to players, the “pickleball pop” is music to the ears.

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Noise issues aside, some tennis players have spoken out over access to local tennis courts, fearful about losing court space to upstart pickleball players.

“We’ve got two passionate sport groups here, and when people are passionate they can get zealous,” said Erica McDonald, Vancouver park board manager.

To try to resolve the issue, on July 14 the park board rolled out a pop-up pickleball court program that converted nine underutilized tennis courts into 34 pickleball pop-ups that will run on staggered dates, from July 14 to Oct. 27.

McDonald said the park board is gathering information on frequency-of-use, and pickleball, paddleball and tennis will all be considered in the park board’s VanPlay strategic plan, which includes the development of an outdoor court strategy.

Article content
After the pop-up pickleball program was announced in February, a Change.org petition started by an anonymous “Quiet Tennis Player” set out to “stop public tennis courts from being eliminated,” and suggested local pickleball players were causing community division with demands to share courts, and “have made claims that the tennis community in Vancouver is dwindling, elitist, entitled, and that tennis courts are empty and surplus.”

Janet Martini, a retired doctor, who fell in love with pickleball two years ago when she took a few classes at a local community centre, said: “We don’t want to take anything away from tennis players. All we want is courts. We’ve lost six courts in the last two years.”

Tennis courts set aside in Queen Elizabeth Park and in Dunbar at the start of the craze were closed to pickleball players in 2020, following noise complaints from neighbours. There is currently no permanent, dedicated pickleball facility in the city.

Article content
Martini said respect for communities is a priority, and pickleball courts should be at least 100 metres from homes — a distance that makes it a particularly difficult conundrum to solve in a city as dense as Vancouver.

Vancouver Tennis Society president Nick Tchernikov said rumours of a turf war are overblown: “We are not against anybody, and we welcome more people playing sports. Pickleball is a great alternative for people who are no longer playing tennis.”

All tennis players want is, well, the same thing pickleball players want. Courts.

“We want to be able to meet the demand for tennis. There are inadequate tennis facilities in the city, and the facilities are inadequately maintained,” said Tchernikov.

Tchernikov estimates there are 60,000-to-70,000 recreational tennis players in the Lower Mainland, compared with what he estimates to be about 7,800 pickleball players. Although there are 108 public tennis courts in Vancouver, overcrowding is already an issue at the better-maintained “super court” locations like Queen Elizabeth Park and Kitsilano Beach.

Article content
Tchernikov, who said his association isn’t behind the petition, said the recent pop-up pickleball court program run by the park board did raise concerns among tennis players when it was first announced: “Tennis players don’t want their courts taken away. If that’s threatened by the park board, it’s going to be a problem.”

Cooler heads prevailed once the tennis community learned that the pop-up pickleball courts are part of a temporary program that will allow the park board to gauge demand among the wiffle-ball set.

In the meantime, Martini said pickleball players have been out in droves, so when city officials drop by three times a day to count heads, the courts look busy.

“I’ve been out every day, even in the heat,” said Martini.

And there may be a few tennis players among them.

“Pickleball is great for tennis players that are injured or aging out of the sport,” said Martini.

For his part, Quiet Tennis Player updated his petition recently, citing “positive developments.” Or perhaps Quiet Tennis Player simply aged out of his sport and crossed over to pickleball.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...-tennis-courts

[Migrant_Coconut]

Threaten to convert it to a basketball court instead, that'll shut the complainers right up.

It has been a long and contentious road for a proposed basketball court in the UBC neighbourhood of Wesbrook Place, but now the journey seems to be reaching its end.

Concerns from the surrounding residents ranged from noise complaints to worries about safety, and a recent report suggests that the dispute has gotten even more intense...

... One of the things the neighbourhood would’ve been okay with? A pickleball court.

“Several respondents commented that they felt the University Neighbourhood Association had not adequately consulted with neighbourhood residents on their preferences for an amenity on the site. Alternative suggestions provided included a community garden, playground, or multi-sport court, including badminton and pickleball, as well as to leave the area in its current state. Others felt the project was not in accordance with the Wesbrook Neighbourhood Plan.”

(link)

[Vin]

This really shows how CoV and Parks Board are dysfunctional......

Opinion: Vancouver would be better off without its elected Park Board
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vanc...ard-eliminated

[madog222]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Stream restoration in Kitsilano up for approval:

Contract was approved by the Park Board yesterday. Construction to start in March and should be finished by the end of 2023.

https://twitter.com/ParkBoard/status...DQkZf3jf4rAAAA

[svlt]

Nice! Forgot that was still up for discussion/approval and assumed it was already a go-ahead.

[jollyburger]

Doing another round of community engagement for East Park on False Creek



https://www.shapeyourcity.ca/east-park

And this in River District

South Kinross Park will become the newest park in the growing River District, which is expected to eventually house up to 15,000 people, after a design concept was completed in 2017 and nearby parks were completed in 2019 and 2021. Construction on the 0.25-hectare South Kinross Park is expected to begin next year, after council awarded the $2.09 million contract to Cedar Crest, which was selected from five bids.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...eline-projects

[Migrant_Coconut]

$19 million in federal funding for Vancouver's rainwater runoff upgrades

With the frequency of heavy rainfall events expected to rise over the coming decades, mitigation measures for the impacts of climate change are increasingly front and centre for the City of Vancouver.

For that reason, the federal government announced today it will provide the municipal government with $18.9 million towards the City’s Rain City Strategy.

The City is also contributing $17.3 million towards the project, which represents a total investment of over $36 million between both governments...

...While the municipal government has emphasized an urgent need to renew and expand its aging sewer system, including separating building sanitary sewage from stormwater sewage, the new funding will go towards expanding natural infrastructure to prevent urban flooding.

This includes the use of water-absorbent landscaping, rainwater tree trenches, the restoration of wetlands and streams, and other ways that capture rainwater closer to where it falls. An ecological process also helps remove pollution from urban runoff and improve water quality.
An example of such an upcoming project that utilizes such natural infrastructure features is the St. George Rainway in Mount Pleasant, which will run north-south along St. George Street for a length of 10 city blocks or about one km. Construction on the first segment of the rainway is expected to begin in 2023.

The recent Richards Street design changes that added an additional north-south bike lane to downtown Vancouver also included natural infrastructure features, including stormwater tree trenches and the planting of over 100 trees and planter boxes to manage water at street level...