Lynn Canyon suspension bridge. File photo by Cindy Goodman/North Shore News
The District of North Vancouver is looking to make some major updates to the Lynn Canyon Park parking lot and entrance.
The municipality is currently accepting bids on a $1.95-million project that will see the existing gravel lot expanded and paved with asphalt.
Upgrading the 1960s era parking lot has been on the district’s to-do list since the previous council did a masterplan for the park, but funding wasn’t put in place until the 2019 budget.
The primary need for the change is to make it safer, said Gavin Joyce, general manager of engineering, parks and facilities for the district.
“We have a lot of mixing of pedestrians now with moving vehicles. We also can’t designate areas for disability spaces or oversize vehicles. So it will help with the overall flow and management and near misses,” he said.
The 250-hectare park gets about one million visitors per year. That can mean upwards of 1,500 drivers looking for a place to park per day, added Susan Rogers, section manager for parks and planning.
“On a busy Saturday, it can be really quite crazy,” she said. “The suspension bridge is such a vast regional attractor now. We don’t see this just being a trend. It’s a unique facility and in combination with the ecology centre, I think we’re going to continue to see it being used heavily. We’re trying to anticipate a little bit of what the future is looking like and how we can improve the overall safety and circulation of a very tight area,” she said.
