A denser city needs more shared outdoor space, not less.

Green space

Plan public space alongside growth.

• Protect and add meaningful, usable green space.
• Prioritize parks near higher-density housing.
• Provide trees, shade, seating and gathering places.
• Create useful places for children and families.
• Do not assume existing parks can absorb unlimited population growth.

First Street Municipal Park is the flagship specific commitment.

Mahon outdoor pool

Develop a credible plan to restore outdoor public swimming at Mahon Park.

Prepare a costed and technically feasible plan. Engineering, site conditions and lifecycle cost must be understood before construction is promised.

Restore a form of recreation that served generations of North Vancouver families, subject to a technically and financially credible plan.

Promenades and sidewalks

Design major pedestrian routes as places, not only corridors.

• Width for side-by-side walking and comfortable passing
• Room for mobility devices and strollers
• Trees and shade
• Seating and lighting
• Weather protection where practical
• Places to stop and socialize

A good sidewalk moves people. A great sidewalk also gives people a reason to stay.

Local-first events

Festivals and events should first serve people who live here.

Regional visitors are welcome, but City-supported programming should strengthen local community life and spread civic activity beyond the Shipyards.

• Help neighbours meet.
• Support local businesses, artists and community groups.
• Give families and residents reasons to use public spaces.
• Support smaller markets, concerts, cultural events, family activities and community gatherings in neighbourhood parks, plazas and streets.

Public art

Create art residents can keep discovering.

Continue permanent art where appropriate and add a rotating outdoor sculpture program in parks, plazas and pedestrian areas, with meaningful opportunities for North Shore artists.

The final rotation interval will be set through program design rather than promised in advance.

Recreation project discipline

Build the right facility, keep the promises, and get it open.

• Preserve scope discipline.
• Disclose complete cost history.
• Report schedule changes.
• Show land and financing contributions.
• Explain major amenity changes.
• Conduct a post-project review.

Harry Jerome is used as a policy lesson. Precise project chronology and figures will be rechecked before publication.

Harbour swimming deck

Resolve the waterfront’s transportation role before committing scarce space.

Do not treat a harbour swimming deck as an isolated amenity. Defer a final decision until Lonsdale Quay and the surrounding waterfront are planned as an effective multimodal transportation hub.

Urban heat and green roofs

Roofs and roads are unavoidable. Turning all of them into heat-absorbing surfaces is not.

• Encourage green and green-solar roofs.
• Use shade trees, planting and permeable surfaces.
• Encourage lower-heat paving and roof treatments.
• Target cooling improvements in the hottest public spaces.
• Focus planning and incentive tools on large flat-roof commercial and multi-family buildings.

The City should encourage measurable performance without promising building-code requirements that provincial law may reserve to the Province.