Skateboarders will converge on park board as NPA majority considers removing Mount Pleasant Park facility

by Charlie Smith on April 27th, 2015 at 9:19 AM

1 of 1 2 of 1

Vancouver skateboarders held a rally yesterday at the Mount Pleasant Park facility in a last-ditch effort to try to save the facility.

It's at the corner of Ontario Street and 16th Avenue.

Tonight, the Vancouver park board will vote on a staff recommendation to create an intermediate-skill-level skateboarding facility in the 1.4-hectare Jonathan Rogers Park on West 7th Avenue at the corner of Manitoba Street.

Park-board staff have recommended three options in part B of the proposed motion:

Convert the Mount Pleasant Park skateboarding area into a beginners'-only facility.
Remove the skateboarding facility from Mount Pleasant Park and convert it to grass.
Remove the skateboarding facility from Mount Pleasant Park and "engage with local residents to determine a more appropriate use for the area".

"Skateboarding at Mount Pleasant Park was occurring after 10pm and prior to 6 am, which causes significant unintended noise impacts for nearby residents, especially at night when used by young adults," a staff report states. "Staff did not anticipate the need, the high use by adult skateboarders, and the noise resulting from this location.

There are seven park commisioners who will make this decision. Four belong to the NPA (Casey Crawford, John Coupar, Sarah Kirby-Yung, and Erin Shum), two are Greens (Stuart Mackinnon and Michael Wiebe), and one represents Vision Vancouver (Catherine Evans).