Along with having a mayor and a strong majority on city council elected, ABC Vancouver also won a majority on the Park Board, with Scott Jensen, Angela Kate Haer, Laura Christensen, Marie-Claire Howard, Jas Virdi, and Brennan Bastyovanszky securing six of the seven seats, while the Green Party's Tom Digby rounded out the board.
Those seven candidates are replacing the entire existing Park Board commissioners, who finished off their term Monday evening with a unanimous decision to approve two new parks across the city.
The two new parks are South Kinross Park and Promontory Park, both in the River District of Vancouver near the border with Burnaby.
South Kinross Park
The Vancouver Park Board has a stated priority of delivering parks in the East Fraser Lands (EFL) area in order to support a neighbourhood projected to eventually house up to 15,000 people. There are 25 acres of parks planned across the East Fraser Lands, and will continue to be developed along with residential properties.
South Kinross Park will be located at 3298 Riverwalk Avenue, between the Kinross Street-Riverwalk Avenue intersection and the Fraser River. The site is currently an empty grass field, named Kinross Park South on Google Maps, but the Park Board has said "South Kinross Park" is a temporary name and an official name will be announced at a future date.
Development plans for numerous parks in the area have underwent public engagement campaigns through 2016 and 2017, with North Kinross Park and Middle Kinross Park already complete and now open to the public. While those two parks were closer to 0.60 acres, South Kinross Park will be approximately 0.90 acres.
Renderings. (Vancouver Park Board)
An Invitation To Tender (ITT) was issued in late-August to seek out contractors for the park. The Park Board received five responses, from Canadian Landscape and Civil Services Ltd, Cedar Crest Lands BC Ltd, GPM Civil Contracting Inc, Rust Investments Ltd, and Wilco Civil Inc.
The Park Board ended up choosing Cedar Crest Lands BC Ltd, awarding them a contract of $2,098,900, which was the lowest offer they received, but one they said "best met the Park Board’s requirements and provided best overall value." That $2.1M will be financed through the 2019-2022 Capital Plan, the Park Board said.
Promontory Park
The second new park approved is also within the East Fraser Lands, and will be located at the intersection of Marine Way and East Sawmill Crescent, about a 10-minute walk away from South Kinross Park. "Promontory Park" is again a temporary name, with an official name to be decided later.
The site is currently a parking lot, next door to the River District Town Centre, and the park is expected to be about 0.3 hectares.
Development plans passed public engagement in September 2020, and an official ITT was issued last month. All five contractors that responded to the ITT for South Kinross Park also responded to this ITT, but this time the Park Board awarded the contract to Rust Investments Ltd, also known as Shangri-La Landscaping.
Map and rendering. (Vancouver Park Board)
The contract is for $1,633,672.98, which was again the lowest, and will also be funded through the 2019-2022 Capital Plan. The Park Board notes that because this is a completely new park, an additional $90,000 would need to be earmarked as a budget for operations and maintenance.
Construction on Promontory Park is expected to begin before the end of the year.
Additionally, the Park Board also awarded a $2,708,451.90 contract -- also funded through the aforementioned Capital Plan -- to Wilco Civil Inc. for the "daylighting" of a creek that flows through the existing Volunteer Park and Tatlow Park, near English Bay in Kitsilano. That project will restore the creek that once flowed through the two adjacent parks, allowing for "a significant opportunity to increase access to nature, create new habitat areas, and integrate storm water management through natural green rainwater features."
Rendering. (Vancouver Park Board)
"The site is also a culturally significant place for the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, on which the historic creek is located on their traditional territories," the Park Board said. "Representatives from the Host First Nations have been engaged throughout the project, and will continue throughout construction."
Construction is slated to begin in March 2023 and conclude before the end of 2023.
