A group of Burnaby residents is worried the city plans to pave paradise and put in a parking lot.
Clayton Aelbers grew up playing in Central Park in Burnaby, and he doesn't want to see it change.
"I've been going there since I was a kid," said the co-founder of the Save Central Park group.
Today, Aelbers lives across from the park with his fiancée, Lorea Benedet. They've lived in the area for about four years and walk their dog Gizmo in the park daily, he added.
Aelbers and Benedet created the Save Central Park Facebook group and have started a petition to stop the city from moving forward on the concept plan for the park.
"Just leave the park alone," Aelbers said. "Preserve the park."
There wasn't enough public consultation on plans for the park, he added, saying there were only three meetings with about 50 people attending each in 2008 when the plan was put forward.
Aelbers wasn't able to attend the meetings, and he worries that new residents and those unaware of the plan won't get a chance to give feedback on the changes before they're made.
His primary concerns are additional parking stalls, buildings and cement paths throughout the park, which would likely require trees be removed. Aelbers said he's also worried about the loss of recreational facilities such as the baseball diamonds and the lawn bowling area.
In particular, he wants the old slo-pitch diamond that was removed to be replaced, and the other baseball diamond in the northeast corner of the park to be preserved.
Aelbers is also concerned about tree removal in the park - specifically the trees removed for water main work in 2010 and a row of cherry trees cut down along the new SkyTrain path along Kingsway, from Patterson Avenue to Boundary Road, he said.
The Save Central Park petition's purpose is: "To preserve the park in its current state and to not follow through with upcoming overall conceptional plans to disfigure the park with new infrastructures, parking lots, buildings and cement paths through walking areas. Also to replace the baseball diamonds that were removed."
It can be found at www.ipetitions.com/ petition/savethepark.
Dave Ellenwood, director of parks, recreation and cultural services, said the city is not moving forward on the rest of the concept plan right now.
The baseball diamond in the northeast sector cannot be removed until a new location is found for it, he said, adding there's no current timeline on that.
"But that doesn't stop us from developing something more community-minded around the baseball field," he said, "such as putting play courts where the old slopitch diamond was."
As for tree cutting, Ellenwood said none has been done in relation to the concept plan, but trees were cut down in 2010 as part of a Metro Vancouver water main replacement project, which started in 2006.
He wasn't aware of any other recent tree removal, he said, but would check with city staff.
Parking stalls were initially planned for the area near the lawn bowling club, where B.C. Parkway intersects with Kingsway, Ellenwood said, but council made it clear that they would not approve the removal of parkland for parking stalls.
"We're not going to develop the parking according to that concept plan they saw," he added.
The city is focusing instead on putting parking on already developed land, orienting the park more for pedestrian and transit traffic, and making it more community accessible, Ellenwood said.
The city also heard from the lawn bowling community and will not be removing the lawn bowling pitch, he said.
Any changes to the park would have to go to council for approval before staff could move forward, he pointed out.
"Council needs to approve any plan that we would implement, and they haven't done that," Ellenwood said. "Council has made it clear to me that Central Park is our gem."
Instead, the city is currently focused on trail development on the Trail of Hope, he said, including removing invasive species, resurfacing the trail and then planting native species plants.
The city is also planning to put an off-leash dog park in under the SkyTrain guideway, according to Ellenwood.
There will be further public consultation before the city moves forward with the concept plan, Ellenwood stressed, and proposed changes would have to go to council to be approved.
"I think what we want to do is check back with the community and see if the community orientation we want to take with that northeast sector is on the right track," he said.
