Council approves $ 10.5- million plan to add sports fields, green space
By next fall, athletes will have two new synthetic sports fields and a BMX bike dirt jump area after Vancouver city council voted to spend $ 10.5 million on the greening of Hastings Park.
Council approved Wednesday the addition of 6.8 hectares of new park that includes playing fields with lights in Plateau Park in the Empire Fields area in the southeast corner of the park.
Overall, the master plan for the east Vancouver park is to eventually increase green space to 30 hectares from 10 hectares. The goal is to create a destination park with sports and recreation facilities for all ages and abilities, a city report on Hastings Park said.
“The construction of a renewed Empire Fields, Plateau Park and green ways in Hastings Park will deliver a facility that was conceived with signifi cant input from both local and city- wide residents and is highly supported by residents and stakeholders,” the report said.
The Empire Field area was set aside for Empire Stadium for the 1954 Empire Games. In the 1970s, it had the country’s first synthetic turf field; in the 1980s, after the stadium was torn down, it became a parking lot; by the 1990s, the area had a natural grass sports field.
Part of the project includes stitching about 930 square metres of new synthetic turf into the turf field laid for the temporary stadium built by PavCo in 2010 for the B. C. Lions while BC Place was being renovated.