Park Board's public meetings to move to Vancouver City Hall on a trial basis | Daily Hive

Park Board's public meetings moved to Vancouver City Hall on a pilot project basis

Vancouver City Hall. (Margarita Young/Shutterstock

The scheduled public meetings and deliberations of the Vancouver Park Board’s elected commissioners have moved from the Park Board’s headquarters in Stanley Park to Vancouver City Hall.

This major change — on a pilot project basis — covers the Park Board’s regular and committee meetings, and is intended to make it much easier for members of the public to attend and speak at such meetings.

Moreover, it is also intended to encourage closer cooperation between the mayor, city councillors, and Park Board commissioners. A higher degree of collaboration has been identified as a key priority of Mayor Pete Fry and the Green Party of Vancouver.

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Historically, all Park Board meetings have been held at the Park Board’s headquarters at 2099 Beach Ave., which is located just across from the Stanley Park Lawn Bowling Club and on the border with Downtown Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood.

The first Park Board meeting at City Hall’s Vancouver City Council chambers will take place on Monday, Nov. 30, 2026, which is also the first working meeting of the Park Board this term.

The Park Board’s announcement today notes that City Hall has major public transit services nearby — including SkyTrain’s Broadway-City Hall Station, which is served by the Canada Line and will be served by the future Millennium Line extension starting in late 2027, as well as major bus routes. This is expected to improve public access for such meetings.

vancouver city council chambers city hall

Vancouver City Council chambers at Vancouver City Hall. (City of Vancouver)

Vancouver City Hall. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The announcement did not specify how long the pilot project will last or when a decision could be made on a permanent meeting location.

It is also unclear how this could impact the flexible scheduling of City Council’s public meetings, which are exponentially more frequent and longer than Park Board meetings. However, City Council meeting durations have been on a downward trend, after the provincial government implemented legislation requiring municipal governments to abolish the practice of conducting public hearings for rezoning applications that largely align with the municipal Official Development Plan (ODP).

Up until earlier this year, public hearings for rezoning applications previously accounted for a large proportion of City Council’s overall public meetings.

In addition to improved accessibility, Park Board meetings held at City Hall could potentially greatly improve capacity and security for meetings with a great number of registered public speakers. At times, this was a challenge for the Park Board building in Stanley Park, with members of the public waiting to speak sometimes forced to wait outside the building due to indoor capacity limits.

vancouver park board chambers stanley park

Vancouver Park Board chambers at the Park Board’s headquarters building in Stanley Park. (Vancouver Park Board)

Vancouver Park Board headquarters office in Stanley Park. (Kenneth Chan/Daily Hive)

The big move coincides with the start of a new four-year term for the Park Board. Its seven commissioners were sworn in during a ceremony at VanDusen Botanical Garden on Monday, Nov. 2, following last month’s civic election.

Green commissioner Tom Digby was elected as the first chair of this new term of the elected body, while COPE’s Sacia Burton was chosen as the term’s first vice-chair. Both appointed positions typically rotate among the commissioners throughout the term.

The other elected commissioners are COPE’s Jamie Han, Tamiko Suzuki, and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, and the Green Party’s Spencer Van Vloten and Breanne Smart.

Digby is this only elected Park Board incumbent this term.

Separate inauguration ceremonies were also held for the mayor and Vancouver City Council and the Vancouver School Board on Monday evening.

Vancouver Park Board commissioners, November 2026. (Vancouver Park Board)

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