More than 90% of people surveyed do not want to see increased parking at City Park

The City of Langley is updating the master plan for City Park. City Park borders Blacklock Fine Art School in the north, 207th Street in the east, and 48th Avenue in the south.

Map of City Park including current parking. Select map to enlarge.

The two proposed options for the park presented for people to comment on back in February had a substantial increasing in parking within the park. Taking away greenspace in a park for parking vehicles didn’t seem right. The lyrics to the song “Big Yellow Taxi” about putting up a parking lot came to my mind. City Park is a community park, and should serve the needs of people that live in the area.

I was interested in knowing if my thoughts about parking were shared by other people in Langley City, so I conducted a survey.

I sent out a request via Facebook targeting people that live within or near Langley City to ask them to answer a few brief questions. This is what people said who lived in the V3A postal code.

Survey responses. Select chart to enlarge.

179 of the 234 people who completed the survey though that City Park has the right amount of parking inside the park today.

39 people thought that City Park needs less parking inside the park which would create more greenspace in the park. And 16 people though that City Park needs more parking inside the park, even though that means there will be less greenspace in the park.

185 of the 234 people who completed the survey, or 79.1%, visited City Park within the last month.

Some of the comments people submitted include:

I walk through Blacklock and City Park everyday and I don't think there is a parking issue. Speeding in the park zone and on 51B is a major issue though.

I am strongly opposed to increasing parking in city park and putting a through road through the park.

What is the point of creating more parking if you take some of the park away....bad idea!!! It's a diverse ecosystem that needs complete protection and that means every bit of it left as it is....

My backyard backs onto City Park so I have a vested interest into which design the city chooses to adopt. I have yet to see any of the parking lots at City Park full so I question why more parking is even an option for council. Removing greenspace for asphalt and concrete should not be considered an option.

Please don't remove greenspace from this beautiful park. This park is so well loved and used by many of us in this area. It's a gem.

I've never seen the parking lots completely full - The neighborhood doesn't need more traffic either.

Love that park it does have a lot of parking and it is never full. I have lived beside that park for 25 years.

I would not be against more parking as long as it would be secure and locked up at night. As a neighbor of City Park there is already a great deal of drug deals in the lot and cars speeding and doing doughnuts in the lot. It is very noisy at night and not always safe to walk by.

A full 93.2% of the people who completed the survey did not want to see additional parking added to City Park. I will be advocating strongly at the Council table to ensure that additional parking is not added to City Park.