Arbutus Greenway: character zones
By City of Vancouver
View sketches of each character zone
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Zone 1
By City of Vancouver
Community gardens are a big part of the experience in this zone, while local parks provide a place a place to pause, relax, and play.
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Zone 2
By City of Vancouver
Provides a series of garden rooms for seating, public art, and native planting.
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Zone 3
By City of Vancouver
This area is defined by landscaped nooks for people to sit, relax, and enjoy the views to English Bay and the mountains.
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Zone 4
By City of Vancouver
The design for this zone adds more landscaping to the existing tree canopy to create a Pacific Northwest forest-like experience. Lookout points celebrate views of the North Shore mountains.
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Zone 5
By City of Vancouver
A variety of seating areas and informal landscaped areas.
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Zone 6
By City of Vancouver
This zone celebrates the existing Victory Gardens on the eastside of the greenway, using wildflowers and native plantings to enhance biodiversity.
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Zone 7
By City of Vancouver
Zone 7 features a variety of recreational opportunities, such as giant chess, ping pong, and bocce, and includes a small community gathering area at West 60th Ave.
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Zone 8
By City of Vancouver
A fully-accessible lookout tower with views to the Fraser River Delta and Vancouver International Airport is the major feature in this zone.
The Arbutus Greenway will be a defining element of Vancouver’s urban landscape as a vibrant and beautiful public space for walking, cycling, and streetcar.
The Arbutus Greenway is one of several walking and biking paths we're developing to encourage people to use active and sustainable modes of transportation.
The project, which started in 2016, currently has a temporary asphalt path and attracts thousands of people every day, providing people an opportunity to walk, bike, roll from False Creek to the Fraser River. In light of its success, in 2018, City Council endorsed enhancing the path to give people of all ages and abilities places to gather and rest and enjoy the surrounding landscape.
We're planning and designing the future Arbutus Greenway. The long-term vision for the greenway includes distinct character zones that reflect the look and feel of the surrounding neighbourhood.
Project area
Planning the greenway
Projects like this take time, especially with complex engineering requirements and to ensure we have a meaningful public process that brings together all the best ideas from the community.
As part of the planning and design process, the project team had 7,000 touchpoints with members of the public at over 50 events, including a multi-day “charrette” or design workshop, numerous stakeholder workshops, open houses, and online surveys.
Here’s where we've come from.
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2016
Temporary path
We built a temporary path for everyone to enjoy while we plan and design the future greenway.
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Early 2017
Visioning
We consulted with stakeholders and the public on the vision for the future greenway.
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Fall 2017
Design options
We developed several design options for the future greenway. We consulted with residents during the Design Jam.
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April 2018
Proposed design concept
Drawing on public input and technical analysis, the proposed design concept features walking, cycling, and future streetcar paths, as well as public realm amenities.
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September 2018
Option Lands
Council approved the removal of the lands between West 1st Ave and West 5th Ave from the Arbutus Corridor Official Development Plan.
The amendment does not change the existing zoning of the Option Lands. Any potential rezoning would be considered in a future public process.
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November 2019
False Creek Official Development Plan amendment
Public consultation on the proposed amendment to the False Creek Official Development Plan. The amendment is the final step in the planning process related to the “Option Lands” in the Arbutus Greenway corridor. The Option Lands were identified as not being needed for future greenway purposes.
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We are here
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Early 2021
Zone 3 detailed design engagement
Proposed design for character zone 3 share and public invited to provide feedback before the design is finalized. Character zone 3 is a 600-metre section stretching from 16th Ave to West King Edward Ave, called “The Ridge.”
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Late 2022
Council decision
The detail design for zone 3 will be presented to Council for review.
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2023/2024
Construction
Zone 3 construction timeline
