MCEVOY Park will soon be filled with the sounds of school students at play, following an agreement between the City of North Vancouver and St. Edmunds elementary to share joint use of the park.
Council voted to endorse a plan that will see new amenities added to the park at the school's expense. In exchange, St. Edmunds Parish will open up its unused tennis courts for public use to be administrated by the city.
Once complete, the park will feature a play structure with safe-fall surfacing and a perimeter fence hidden behind shrubs. Despite being one of the oldest schools on the North Shore, St. Edmunds doesn't have any greenspace for its students to play on. Instead, their fenced-in yard is on an old parking lot, resulting in daily scrapes and boo-boos for students.
Under the agreement, the public will have unrestricted access to the park but students from the school will have access to the park during their recesses and lunch breaks and during occasional physical education classes.
The two sides are yet to hammer out the details on sharing the ongoing maintenance and future capital costs, but St. Edmunds' principal pledged that students would take an active role in keeping the park free of litter.
Council conducted a public process for opening up the park to school use early in the summer, which found substantial support from neighbours on the north side of the park. But neighbours along the south side were almost unanimously against ceding use of the park to the school on the grounds that it would limit public access and make the neighbourhood an after-hours hangout for teens, bringing theft and vandalism with them.
Council chambers were abuzz as 20 of the school's students eagerly waited to hear council's decision.
Ultimately, council decided, despite some neighbourhood opposition, it was a win-win arrangement, and it was in keeping with the city's tradition of extending partnerships for the community's benefit. "I think it's the right way to get a better use of the park than it is now," said Mayor Darrell Mussatto.
