A Vancouver park commissioner wants to ensure that plazas created as public amenities in private developments are open to all.

These are called privately owned public spaces—POPS for short—and Sarah Kirby-Yung has brought forward a motion to guarantee that they are accessible.

“Oftentimes, as part of the development project or zoning rights that the property owner is given, part of the arrangement is to have a publicly accessible space, but sometimes they have been closed off and they haven’t been truly available to the public, and that’s not the intent,” Kirby-Yung told the Straight by phone September 11.

Kirby-Yung’s measure follows a motion passed on July 20 this year by the seniors’ advisory committee of the City of Vancouver that asks council to prohibit private-property managers from restricting access to these places.

The committee's motion suggests that city staff should "seek a statutory right-of-way for all current and future privately-owned public spaces to ensure that they remain fully accessible to all members of the public".

Kirby-Yung recalled that a member of the seniors' advisory committee had the experience of being turned away from one of these privately owned public spaces in Downtown Vancouver.

"I thought it was important to bring a motion at park borad because we need to make public spaces accessible," said Kirby-Yung, who is running for city council in this year's October 20 election.

According to her, council and park board needs to work together on this issue.

“One of the things that we can do is simple measures like ensuring that there is signage for people that says that this is open to the public and that they are welcome,” Kirby-Yung said.

Kirby-Yung’s motion is included in the agenda for the September 17 park-board meeting.