Sarah Kirby-Yung elected to chair Vancouver park board

The Vancouver park board often changes its chair annually and this year is no exception.

Last night, commissioners elected the NPA's Sarah Kirby-Yung to replace her NPA colleague, John Coupar, for the coming year.

Kirby-Yung was vice chair in 2015, which was her first full year on the board.

Four of the seven commissioners are members of the NPA, giving it a majority.

The new vice chair is the NPA's Erin Shum, who was first elected in 2014.

https://twitter.com/ParkBoard/status/676632832895090688

Kirby-Yung is executive director of marketing and communications with Coast Hotels.

From 2008 to 2010, she was vice president of marketing and communications at the Vancouver Aquarium. Prior to that, she worked for a decade for Tourism Vancouver where she launched the popular Dine Out festival.

Recently, she spearheaded the board's decision to explore new operating models in park concessions.

At last night's park-board meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a 10-year-sublease of the former Fish House restaurant to a numbered company that owns Feast Neighbourhood Table in West Vancouver. The motion also allows for an additional 10-year extension.

The board also voted in favour of Green commissioner Michael Wiebe's motion to direct staff to work with the city's digital strategy team to create online maps illustrating the accessibility of Vancouver parks.

At the same meeting, the board deferred dealing with Vision Vancouver commissioner Catherine Evans's resolution on Syrian refugeees. Her motion called upon staff to examine if former caretaker suites on park-board property could be used as temporary housing for Syrians.