Connectivity of parks and recreation experiences

As we imagine parks and recreation over the next hundred years, now is the time for bold ideas that tie together visions from the past with our hopes for the future.

We envision a network of parks, green spaces, and recreation areas, interwoven into everyday life, that connects us to nature, to each other and to ourselves. We often describe parks and recreation as a system – and for Vancouverites, it should feel that way.

Imagine a seamless public realm that connects places, such as community centres, trail systems and large parks together, and publicly accessible water-front lands that expand access regionally and protects ecosystems. The network will create places to play, exercise, and socialise while providing pathways for the movement of urban wildlife, and rainwater; and creating beautiful and direct and intuitive connections for pedestrians and cyclists of all ages and abilities.

With the goal of greater connectivity, the parks and recreation network will bolster Vancouver’s human and ecological health at a site, local, citywide and regional scale.

Read more about the 100-year vision PDF file (22 MB)

A connected public realm that links places, such as community centres, greenways and trail systems, large parks and publicly accessible waterfronts together, to expand access regionally and protect ecosystems.

Achieved through enhancing existing plans and assets, and creating new routes, the network will be the outcome of collaboration across multiple partners and service providers.

We'll take a multiple-benefit approach to create a citywide network of parks and recreation experiences.

Projects which achieve multiple objectives, and perform multiple functions, make the most efficient use of public land, which is a scarce but valuable civic resource. This land use planning approach looks for solutions based on the interactive and interdependent nature of many factors, including how people use the land, development planning, surface and groundwater flows, landforms and slopes, species and habitats, and ecological conservation.

This is a big idea, one that will not be achieved by the Park Board alone. Instead it is the envisioned outcome of collaboration with Indigenous rights holders, Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh, City of Vancouver colleagues (principally in Engineering, Planning, Urban Design and Sustainability), Vancouver School Board, Metro Vancouver senior levels of government, not-for-profits, partners, Community Centre Associations, leaseholders, businesses, Business Improvement Areas and community groups.

We gratefully acknowledge the system of service providers in which we exist. We are presenting this vision for the purposes of creating and sustaining momentum and identifying where the Park Board can take responsibility for implementation. All parties are invited to interpret the vision in their own way and work with the Park Board to bring it to life.