Skatepark planned for new block-sized park at Granville Bridge's south end | Daily Hive

Skatepark included in design of new block-sized park near Granville Bridge's south end

April 2025 preliminary concept of Burrard Slopes Park. (Vancouver Park Board)

A skatepark is proposed to be one of the main features of a new major public park on the border of the Kitsilano and Fairview neighbourhoods in Vancouver.

The Vancouver Park Board has revealed its preliminary design concept for Burrard Slopes Park, the tentative name for a new city block-sized park just west of the Fir Street off-ramp at the south end of the Granville Street Bridge.

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The future park site spans about 2.5 acres in size, and it is framed by Fir Street to the east, West 5th Avenue to the north, Pine Street to the west, and West 6th Avenue to the south.

West 5th Avenue’s roadway for vehicles will be narrowed considerably to enable additional park space.

Site of the future Burrard Slopes Park. (Vancouver Park Board)

Site of Burrard Slopes Park:

Site of the future Burrard Slopes Park, showing its existing uses. (Vancouver Park Board)

Proposed design of Burrard Slopes Park:

burrard slopes park vancouver design april 2025

April 2025 preliminary concept of Burrard Slopes Park. (Vancouver Park Board)

According to the preliminary details and artistic renderings released today by Park Board for public consultation, there will be a plaza-style skateboard at the northwest corner of the park. It will be designed to encourage a wide range of users and skill levels, with the skatepark surrounded by planted hills to create a safe buffer from other park activities.

The skateboard replaces the area of a small pop-up park space, created in 2016.

The single largest park feature will be a large central open lawn, which also doubles as a flexible space for events.

Near the northeast corner of the park, there will be an enclosed dog off-leash area.

Other features include a new washroom building with two or three universal stalls, meandering pathways, ample seating areas including picnic tables and benches, pollinator gardens, rain gardens, shading trees, and a Mobi bike share station.

April 2025 preliminary concept of Burrard Slopes Park. (Vancouver Park Board)

The Arbutus Greenway’s pedestrian and cycling pathways bisect the block-sized park diagonally. Some changes may be made to the greenway’s design for fire truck access.

Fronting West 6th Avenue, the strip of existing community gardens south of the greenway will be retained.

At the southeast corner of the park site, the existing children’s playground will be improved and expanded.

While this new public park is within the City of Vancouver’s 2022-approved Broadway Plan, the project has been decades in the making. The land assembly process on this specific block for the purpose of establishing a park first began in the late 1990s, after Vancouver City Council’s 1993 approval of the Burrard Slopes Plan that laid out how the area would transition from an industrial district to a residential neighbourhood.

Four parcels on the block acquired by the municipal government in 1982 were originally intended to be held for investment purposes by the City’s Property Endowment Fund (PEF). In 2021, the City transferred $41 million from the Vancouver Park Board’s 2021 capital budget for park land acquisitions to the PEF for the purpose of advancing Burrard Slopes Park. Most of the parcels were then transferred out of the City’s investment portfolio.

The existing park space at the southeast corner of the Burrard Slopes Park site. (Google Maps)

The private property at 1606 5th Ave. on the Burrard Slopes Park block site is holding out from the city’s land assembly acquisition. (Google Maps)

While one small parcel at the northeast corner of the block remains as private property, solely because the owner has refused to sell it to the municipal government, enough parcels have been formed to advance the project to the design and planning stage. The holdout 7,600 sq. ft. private property of 1606 5th Ave. is occupied by a two-storey commercial building, and it currently carries an assessed value of $7.98 million.

To achieve the new public park, all other existing low-storey commercial and industrial buildings north of the greenway were demolished in 2024.

Park Board staff note that they intend to create some of the park’s design features by repurposing large timber trusses that served as the supporting structure of the general contractors Bennett and White’s storage shed and offices near Pine Street for over 50 years.

Currently, the block forms the easternmost end of the Arbutus Greenway route. Over the coming years, pedestrian and cycling volumes on the greenway are likely to increase, as major improvements are being made to effectively extend the route onto the Granville Bridge toward downtown Vancouver.

Future Arbutus Greenway connections to the Granville Connector and other improved active transportation routes from Burrard Slopes Park. (Vancouver Park Board)

Later in Spring 2025, construction is expected to reach completion on the Granville Connector — the protected pedestrian and cycling pathways along the west side of the Granville Street Bridge. This includes a new crossing at the intersection of West 5th Avenue and Fir Street for a new West 5th Avenue segment of the continuous pathways between the greenway’s current end at the park and the south end of the Granville Connector.

As well, over the medium term, there could be north-south active transportation improvements along Pine Street reaching Senakw and the False Creek seawall/Seaside Greenway. Over the much longer term, a streetcar line could potentially bisect the park, following the route of the greenway.

As for the current public consultation on the preliminary design concept for Burrard Slopes Park, an online survey is open through April 30, 2025.

The feedback received from this consultation will be used to finalize the design concept, with a target to receive the Park Board’s approval in Fall 2025. Construction could begin in 2027. An official name for the park will be determined at a later date.

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