Four years after the idea was first pitched, a serene, urban park capping Highway 1 at Lonsdale Avenue may yet become a reality.
Mayor Linda Buchanan floated the idea for a park stretching a block in both directions from Lonsdale Avenue in 2021 after reading about a similar project in Tulsa, Okla.
The city currently has out a call for consultants with experience in planning, feasibility analysis, design, and cost-estimating of park-supporting land bridges.
Speaking to the North Vancouver Chamber’s members at an event on Thursday, Buchanan laid out the vision again.
“We’re re-imagining how we can reconnect the north side of the city with the south side of the city through a land bridge,” she said. “That creates land for us. It creates a green space. It helps to dampen the noise from traffic. It’s a natural way in which to absorb a lot of the emissions from cars, and then it does allow a much more active way for people to get out of their cars.”
'That sounds really expensive'
The new park would provide a critical link between the neighbourhoods above the highway with the new Harry Jerome Community Recreation Centre and commercial areas along Central Lonsdale as the city embarks on making it into a “great street,” Buchanan added.
The community was bisected when the Upper Levels Highway was built in 1964. Buchanan said she remembers having to sprint across the freeway from her neighbourhood on the north side. The existing overpass hasn’t been much better, she said.
“It’s horrific. It’s not accessible. It’s terrible. Most people drive because it feels very unsafe,” she said.
Council did discuss pursuing a feasibility study in 2021 but city staff prioritized other projects.
The current request for proposals, which closes on March 6, specifies that that the final report should include details on Canadian precedents, the existing conditions, a technical evaluation and recommendations for further studies, alternative options and cost estimates.
Those writing the report should include structural, transportation and geotechnical engineers, as well as landscape architects, the request for proposals states.
While such a project would undoubtedly come with a bit-ticket price tag, there are other benefits that will flow as more people are incented to walk or bike where they previously would get into a car, Buchanan noted.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh my God, that sounds really expensive,’ and it probably is, and it’s a good question. It’s a fair question…. It should be all levels of government looking at it,” she said. “You always have to look at cost, and you always have to do your due diligence around it, but you also have to look at, 'What are the benefits and the long-term gains that you’re going to make?'”
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