City faces big park repair bill from 4/20
‘Significant damage’ to Sunset Beach lawn from cannabis enthusiasts forces closure for up to 10 weeks
The Vancouver park board is again asking the public to keep off the grass while its staff repairs damage to the field where the 4/20 cannabis event was held Friday.
Saturday morning, crews from the park board cleaned up remaining trash and assessed what one spokesperson called “significant damage” to the field at Sunset Beach following the Friday protest and cannabis market, which police said had roughly 40,000 attendees at its peak.
The park board put up fencing around the field and estimates it will be closed to the public for 10 weeks. Compared to last year’s event, when the entire field turned to mud, the damage looked far less severe when Postmedia visited the site Saturday.
Organizers said they spent $30,000 for rubber matting that covered high-traffic areas. Despite their efforts, there was still too much damage, the park board said.
Last year, after the park board said the field would be closed for up to five weeks, the board recouped $6,690 from the organizers after giving them a bill for $34,630 to cover repairs, staffing and other costs.
Park board chair Stuart Mackinnon said 4/20 organizers can again expect a bill, though he hasn’t crunched the exact numbers. He said rubber mats offered “limited help” but didn’t cover the entire field, so areas left uncovered may have been made worse by pooling water.
“It may not look like it was bad as last year but one of the problems we’re having is this is the third year in a row and the seeding that we’ve done in the past two years is not taking 100 per cent,” Mackinnon said.
Repairs, which will include aeration, top-dressing, seeding and fertilization, can’t begin until the field is completely dry, Mackinnon said.
“The word I have from our staff is we’re really hopeful that it will be open by Canada Day,” Mackinnon said. “If we have dry weather, it could be sooner than that.”
He said the board maintains that 4/20 shouldn’t be held in any city park and would be a better fit with the convention centre or Pacific National Exhibition grounds.
“We wish for them to find another place that’s better suited for them and for us,” he said. “It’s nothing to do with what they’re selling or smoking — that’s going to be legal in a couple of months. It’s just, as I say, a trade show is not an appropriate activity for a park.”
Organizer Dana Larsen said he and his 4/20 team did their best to prepare for rain and are disappointed park users have been impacted.
“We really tried to mitigate damage happening,” Larsen said. “It’s very difficult, I guess, to do so. I think the damage was less than last year but it sucks that the park is going to have to be closed down again. I really regret that. It was not our intention.”
He said the organizers have set aside “tens of thousands of dollars” to pay for the repairs, lost revenue at the aquatic centre and concession stand, and other costs.
Larsen said the field already had drainage issues before 4/20 — organizers observed puddles in the days before the event — but it remains an ideal location because of its size and accessibility.
They would be “more than happy” to move 4/20 to the PNE grounds because costs would be dramatically lower, but they have had trouble making progress with locals and officials, Larsen said.
Some people have suggested the event be moved to the paved lot east of B.C. Place Stadium but Larsen said that won’t happen because it is private property.