Vancouver plans community park

Parks leaders are celebrating the city of Vancouver’s official acquisition of a 14.3-acre parcel of undeveloped, forested land in east Vancouver set to become the city’s newest community park.

City councilors approved the $4.3 million purchase agreement in July. On Nov. 21, the city made it official and took possession of the future park site.

“This is an exciting step toward expanding access to parks in east Vancouver, and we look forward to working with residents to shape the future of this space together,” Melody Burton, the city’s senior communications specialist, said in an emailed statement.

The park will be a part of the Vancouver Innovation Center, a 179-acre mixed-use development featuring residential, retail, office and light industrial spaces tied together with pedestrian pathways, public areas and the new city park.

Burton said the privately owned VIC development has “benefited from extensive planning and collaboration over the past several years” and that the city “intends to carry that same thoughtful, high-quality approach” into its design work for the new community park.

“Our goal is to create a space that honors the character of the landscape, complements the surrounding community and is shaped by the priorities of local residents,” she said.

The city is selecting a design consultant to work on the first stages of the park’s development, and Burton said the public will hear more about the park in 2026.

“We look forward to inviting the community into the process later in the spring to help determine the park’s design, amenities and character,” Burton said.

She added that the site, which is located on the former Hewlett-Packard campus off 192nd Avenue, is not open to the public “due to limited safe access points.”

The site is heavily forested. The purchase agreement protects the parcel’s old-growth trees. But it also contains beautiful meadowlands that may be perfect for park development, said David Perlick, Vancouver’s director of parks, recreation and cultural services.

“From the outside, you see this amazing stand of dense, mature trees and it’s incredible, but there are also these interior meadows,” Perlick told members of the city’s parks and recreation commission Nov. 19.

Perlick told parks commissioners in November that the site is so natural, it could pose a unique conundrum for parks leaders.

“Sometimes we’re saying, ‘How do we get the nature in the park?’ ” Perlick said. “Here we’re saying, ‘How do we get the park in the nature?’ ”

According to documents presented to the Vancouver City Council in July, the city funded the $4.3 million purchase using park impact fees paid by developers.

The city agreed to preserve the site’s dense, old-growth trees, and the city manager noted in a July report to the council that future park amenities will need to be designed and installed around the trees, “which may increase costs and limit the type of amenities that can be installed.”

The purchase agreement is for a 13.7-acre forested tract of land, as well as a 0.63-acre site for parking and other park amenities.

According to city documents, Vancouver parks leaders expect to complete the first phase of park improvements within three years.

Perlick said the master planning work and design process for the new park will likely kick off in January or February.

“It’s not often we have a community park,” Perlick said. “This is a really amazing site to add to the system.”