Queen's Park will undergo significant change in the years to come including an overhaul of the stadium and a second ice sheet.
New Westminster city council has adopted the 2013 Queen's Park master plan and directed staff to incorporate the recommendations into future work plans for council's consideration.
"It is 125 years old now," Jana Zelenski, manager of urban design and landscape architecture at Golder Associates, said about the park. "This is the first vision for it."
The vision of the 77-acre park includes being a park for everyone, a place of celebration and discovery, a home for nature and ecology and a coherent and unified park that is well designed and integrated in character.
"The vision is to create a space for everyone," said Zelenski, a consultant who has been leading the process.
The Queen's Park master plan includes 35 recommendations requiring capital investment, including: restoring and enhancing Queen's Park Arena; installing a second ice sheet; expanding greenhouses and building a new conservatory; replacing the stadium grandstand with a new, high-quality facility; updating Rainbow Playland; installing community/children's gardens; installing rainwater ponds and swale; creating an eco-zone area; relocating the rose garden; creating a park entry plaza at the south tennis courts site; consolidating maintenance buildings and storage areas; and reorganizing parking. The plan also includes operational recommendations about items like policy development, management and planning and information strategies for Queen's Park.
During the master plan process, Zelenski said residents offered a "range of input" about their vision for Queen's Park Stadium. While the stadium has a lot of memories for some people, she noted that the aging stadium is deteriorating and will need costly repairs in the years ahead.
The consultants hired to oversee the master plan process considered three approaches for Queen's Park Stadium: removal of the grandstand and creation of a quality, smaller-scale facility; short-term grandstand upgrades to maintain its current function; and a full grandstand upgrade and plans for increased use.
Council supported the recommendation to replace the existing stadium with a new high-quality facility that is size-appropriate and reduces the city's maintenances costs.
"We are talking about a place that still becomes an experience, an even better experience than it is today," Zelenski said.
Zelenski said the idea would be to create a facility that offers seating behind the ball field and offers a better connection to the park-entry experience. In addition to opening up views to the ball field, it would also provide better connections with the surrounding amenities.
"Today it's a little bit bleak," she said of the stadium that's been in Queen's Park since 1950. "It's a little bit concrete."
Changes are also proposed for the site that currently is home to the south tennis courts, which are those located near the stadium. The consultants said the tennis courts are not the highest and best use for the site that's located near the entrance to Queen's Park.
"We think this is a critical site for the future of Queen's Park," Zelenski said.
The two main ideas considered for this area were the creation of a central public open space and an indoor facility that promotes sports excellence. The consultants recommended the creation of a park entry plaza at the site as it becomes a place that brings people together in one location in the park.
"It becomes a space that supports all those different amenities surrounding it," Zelenski added.
Although the city may want to consider another indoor facility that promotes sports excellence, the consultants concluded there were efficiencies in concentrating that as part of the facilities near Canada Games Pool rather than in Queen's Park.
"This plan is something that is going to develop over many generations," Coun. Chuck Puchmayr said about the plan's recommendations. "The public should know this is something we can't afford to do right now."
Puchmayr said he loves the idea of a plaza, noting it would be in an appropriate location near the Bernie Legge Theatre and the arena.
Coun. Betty McIntosh expressed support for stands in the stadium that could be used by baseball fans. She questioned what the cost of a new stadium facility would be.
Don Crockett, a principal with Golder Associates, said it's estimated new stands accommodating 300 to 500 people would be about $500,000 and an additional $300,000 to remove the existing structure. When compared to the cost of patching up and retaining the existing structure, he said the costs are comparable.
Crockett added that it's better for the park to have a smaller, high-quality facility that would accommodate baseball.
"I think we are going to need to assure our community that the wrecking ball hasn't already been ordered," McIntosh said. "This is going to be over years and years."
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