Landscape architect Patrick Condon is suggesting the Pacific National Exhibition’s annual fair and Playland amusement park be moved to Vancouver’s seawall area.

The UBC professor said that relocating the PNE would free up Hastings Park for intensive re-greening and more neighbourhood-oriented activities.

“The one [idea] that certainly springs to mind is to utilize the linear resource we have downtown, the linear public realm, which is the seawall and associated park spaces,” Condon told the Straight in a phone interview. “The Olympics showed those spaces worked very well, including Granville Island and David Lam Park, and areas around Coal Harbour and around the convention centre. All those spaces have tremendous capacity for a fantastic event.”

Condon also said that Hastings Park could become the Stanley Park of the East Side if much of the space is reclaimed as parkland.

However, the relocation of the city-owned PNE is not being contemplated in the ongoing development of a master plan for Hastings Park and the exhibition.

In December 2009, city staff presented to council a report outlining the features of a draft $204-million program. The proposal includes an expansion of Playland’s footprint by 30 percent and the construction of a 150,000-square-foot building to be used for special events.

Project manager Dave Hutch told the Straight by phone that staff will submit a detailed report to council by the fall.

Vision Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie is the chair of the PNE board. He noted that the 66-hectare Hastings Park has several uses.

“In name it’s a park, and there’s components of activity that is located on the site, but of course it’s not just a park,” Louie told the Straight by phone. He added that the annual fair the PNE stages in the park “provides great value to the city”.

Louie said that the city intends to expand the park’s green space to 29 hectares.