Parks, recreation, and natural spaces
65 commitments from 9 parties, grouped by who published them.
TEAM for a Livable Vancouver 32
- Expand tree planting, mature tree protections, green space retention and enhancement, and account for heat island impacts in community planning.↗
- Invest $739 million over four years in parks and recreation facilities.↗
- Plan parks and recreation system expansion in alignment with population growth.↗
- Add more green spaces, recreational facilities, and parks to address increasing density and existing deficiencies, with particular attention to the historically underserved east side of the city.↗
- Work with Engineering to improve bike access to parks and beaches without paving over existing lawns and gardens.↗
- Facilitate gardens and urban farming in public and private spaces to support community resilience and food security.↗
- Enforce maintenance bylaws on vacant or under-construction private property and boulevards to ensure lawn trimming and litter pickup.↗
- Increase planting and maintenance of the urban forest on City-owned lands, including street boulevards, and plant new trees to support a healthy tree canopy, with improved street tree management to protect existing mature trees and add new trees in underserved areas.↗
- Retain, protect, and upgrade heritage facilities within the parks and recreation system.↗
- Restore pre-COVID vehicle access to Stanley Park and Beach Avenue while also providing new alternative infrastructure for cycling and walking without impeding vehicles.↗
- Assess and plan for the impact of climate change on Vancouver's parks and recreation system, including beaches and seawalls, and protect and expand the tree canopy to provide shade and support urban wildlife and ecology.↗
- Expand the park ranger program, keep lifeguards on beaches, and add fencing on parks adjacent to busy roads to increase safety.↗
- Provide safe off-leash dog park spaces within walking distance in all neighbourhoods.↗
- Keep Park Board assets publicly owned and operated.↗
- Discourage park encampments to ensure parks are safe and accessible for all, while working collaboratively with the City and other levels of government to ensure parks are not used as a substitute for housing and services.↗
- Prioritise local neighbourhood community centres, recreation facilities, amenities, pools, and parks to achieve walkable neighbourhoods with universal access.↗
- Avoid further development of regional-serving parks and facilities within the city, with an exception for replacement of existing citywide special-use facilities such as the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.↗
- Reconsider the Vancouver Aquatic Centre replacement to include a 50-metre pool as originally approved by voters, including investigating the feasibility of renovating the existing building if that is the only way to keep a 50-metre pool.↗↗↗
- Provide an integrated swimming and lifeguard training program so all Vancouver children can learn to swim, in cooperation with qualified agencies, with more accessible community-based pools through collaboration between community centres and schools targeting early learning for young children.↗
- Support local Community Centre Associations and their roles in joint operation of community centre facilities, and ensure renewal of Joint Operating Agreements with all CCAs in 2027 and beyond.↗
- Encourage collaboration with schools and libraries for use of their facilities for community centre programs.↗
- Withdraw Park Board support for the City-initiated policy of imposing housing over new community centres.↗
- Plan for community centre maintenance, upgrades, renovation, and expansions that save money long-term rather than deferring maintenance leading to expensive replacements.↗
- Ensure annual and long-term budgets for operations and the capital plan include established funding for all existing community centres on an ongoing basis.↗
- Transfer finance, operations, and facilities back under Park Board jurisdiction from the City's planning, real estate, and facilities departments, with line-by-line budget analysis and oversight.↗
- Advocate for secure, ongoing funding for the Park Board as a specified portion of the City of Vancouver tax base.↗
- Protect and expand the parks and recreation system targeting a ratio of 1.1 hectares of parks per 1,000 people to serve projected population growth.↗
- Designate existing temporary and de-facto parks as permanent parks to ensure their protection.↗↗
- Halt current logging operations in Stanley Park until a full scientific review and independent risk assessments are conducted, with written records retained including documented tree inspections considering ecological, wildlife, and recreational values, and limit felling to trees deemed imminently dangerous by a provincially certified tree risk assessor.↗
- Ensure public engagement and multiple expert opinions are considered before major projects are undertaken in Vancouver parks.↗
- Give preference to in-house employees over outside contractors for parks projects and follow all WorkSafe BC guidelines to protect workers.↗
- Fund the Park Board's capital plan.↗
Green Party of Vancouver 14
- Introduce a motion directing City staff to create a dedicated Community Environmental Stewardship Grant program providing flexible, small-scale, accessible, and equity-focused funding to grassroots and volunteer-led groups for activities including habitat restoration, education, and community science in eco-corridors and neighbourhood greenspaces.↗↗
- Continue advocating for the Park Board's unanimously adopted recreation facility renewal priorities in the 2027–2030 Capital Plan process.↗
- Expand the current pilot project for alcohol consumption in parks to include all eligible parklands and beaches.↗
- Work to implement the People, Parks and Dogs Strategy, including advancing new dog parks in Mount Pleasant and Kitsilano and creating multi-access drinking fountains at dog parks.↗
- Prioritize completing and implementing the Sports Fields Strategy, develop new fields, and accelerate construction of a synthetic turf field at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary.↗
- Actively collaborate with federal and provincial governments to seek funding to rebuild Jericho Pier into a modern waterfront hub for community building, outdoor recreation, and harbour safety.↗
- Initiate a pilot project for an electric trolley loop service within Stanley Park.↗
- Finalize planning for a new outdoor swimming pool in Oak Park (Marpole).↗
- Renew and update the Vancouver Park Board's biodiversity strategy and goals in view of the new Vancouver Plan, blue-green infrastructure plans, and shoreline resilience strategy.↗
- Invest in aging community facilities.↗
- Improve access to swimming and recreation programs.↗
- Increase public washrooms and water fountains in parks.↗
- Improve food options at Park Board facilities.↗
- Propose restoring lifeguard services at key Vancouver beaches.↗
Independent Parks Party 8
- Rescind the recent parking fee increase at Spanish Banks and return the rate to $1/hour.↗
- Rescind authorization for the BC Hydro substation at Nelson Park and formally request that the BC Utilities Commission deny the permit.↗
- Halt Britannia Pool renovations while the Vancouver Aquatic Centre is out of commission.↗
- Direct staff to cancel the planned rebuild of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre until a 50-metre pool is restored to the plan.↗
- Deny approval of additional artificial turf playing fields and direct staff to produce a plan for safe removal of existing artificial turf and replacement with natural grass.↗
- Prohibit further logging in Stanley Park and limit tree removal to individual trees determined to be imminently dangerous using provincially certified methods.↗
- Rescind the recently enacted tree inspection policy that allows trees in forested areas to be declared dangerous and removed without a provincially certified inspection.↗
- Establish the Green Canopy Protection Committee, a panel of experts from which City staff must receive permission before removing trees.↗
COPE 2
Christian Kyle 1
- Dedicate full effort to keeping public spaces safe and functional for all Vancouverites.↗
TrueBlue Vancouver 1
- Keep parks, sidewalks, recreation facilities, and other public spaces clean, well-maintained, and accessible, and address dangerous encampments and serious public disorder.↗
Vote Vancouver 1
- Fully fund lifeguards to keep them on public beaches by Summer 2027.↗