Parents and those who are just young at heart can look forward to some new and improved playgrounds coming to Burnaby.
The city’s parks department released a staff report last month, highlighting the importance of a budget boost in order to redevelop Burnaby playgrounds and parks.
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And luckily, city council granted the increase, allowing several popular spots to get a major upgrade.
According to the report, the City of Burnaby replaces only three playgrounds per year with a budget of $185,000 per site.
That means a typical playground is replaced once every 28 years. Given that playgrounds generally have a lifespan of only 15 years, this means a lot of the existing ones are not in the best shape.
This new program would allow for the replacement of a fourth playground as well as a larger budget of $300,000 for each playground upgrade per year.
In addition, staff are also pushing for more exciting attractions at playgrounds, like ziplines, spiral slides, treehouse towers and rope walkways.
The program highlights creating more of these enhanced playgrounds, or what they’re calling “destination” playgrounds.
Parks staff would like to see two enhanced playgrounds created over two years and a destination playground in the third year.
As for the price tag, enhanced playgrounds would cost approximately $750,000 for areas like daycares and schools.
And destination playgrounds built in major parks have a budget of $3.5 million and are designed to attract people from across the city and beyond.
The program suggests there should be 12 enhanced playgrounds and eight destination playgrounds in the city.
Over a dozen Burnaby playgrounds are eligible for an upgrade within the next three years.
Burnaby playgrounds due for an upgrade
- Burnaby Lake Park (2023)
- Eastburn Park (2023)
- Sumas Park (2023)
- Harbourview Park (2023)
- Poplar Park (2024)
- Cariboo School Park (2024)
- Greentree Village Park (2024)
- Maywood Park – enhanced (2024)
- Lobley Park (2024)
- Ron McLean Park (2025)
- Central Park – destination (2025)
- Burnaby Heights Park (2025)
- Suncrest Park (2025)
- New site TBD (2025)
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