Some foresee crowds at Golden Spike Days Festival as Rocky Point Park’s future if park not expanded

Thousands flocked to Rocky Point Park on June 30 to rock out to Trooper during the Golden Spike Days Festival.

So many showed up that the gated festival hit its 8,000 capacity limit, and some worry the scene foreshadows the park’s future if it is not eventually expanded.

“Sadly, many were turned away because the park was full,” said Dave Ungless, a Port Moody resident speaking to council on Tuesday. “It became quite clear that evening that, with the addition of tens of thousands of people eventually living nearby without backyards, that the wisest decision is to expand Rocky Point Park significantly.”

Council was reviewing the third phase of public engagement for its Rocky Point Park and Old Orchard Park master plans on July 9.

Concerns regarding overcrowding and expanding the park did not feature in the report, but these issues were the main focus of discussion at council, leading to confusion amongst some councillors as to why it was being relitigated.

Coun. Haven Lurbkiecki was quick to jump on the subject, noting these issues were high priorities in earlier engagement results, including OCP, budget, and household surveys, and the Parks and Recreation Master Plan survey.

Lurbiecki had introduced a motion in July, 2023 suggesting council should try to purchase the parkland needed to expand Rock Point westward. It failed to get any support.

She spoke at length alleging a disconnect exists between public feedback and the direction of the current 10-year plan for Rocky Point, and the upcoming official community plan (OCP).

“It’s not because staff are ignoring our residents or don’t understand the wishes for a park expansion. To be frank, it’s because I believe council is,” Lurbiecki said. “Sometimes, it feels like there’s some sort of alternative reality up here.”

Nishka Valdez, an organizer of the Expand Rock Point Park group, also spoke during public input period. The group has been campaigning to have 28 acres of adjacent industrial land to the west designated as parkland in the upcoming OCP. Their petition has gathered more than 1,200 signatures.

While several councillors were sympathetic to the groups’ desire to expand Port Moody’s most popular park, they pointed out the westward lands are privately held and already slated for redevelopment.

The 34-acre Flavelle Oceanfront Development lies immediately west to Rocky Point Park, which will eventually add more than 3,400 units in a dozen towers at the site.

“The fact of the matter is we can’t go out (and do) public engagement on somebody else’s land. It’s that simple,” said Mayor Meghan Lahti.

Coun. Kyla Knowles said the city has over 40 smaller parks, and the city needs to focus on improving them, adding that she hopes the new land management strategy will lead to more parkland acquisitions.

She pointed out the Flavelle Oceanfront developers made a commitment to dedicate 25 percent of the site (around 7.5 acres) as public parks, and rejected the notion that a majority of residents would approve of any form of expropriation.

“It’s mostly just dirt right now . . . it’s going to become much greener,” Knowles said. “It would fall to the city to form a connection between Rocky Point Park and those lands.”

Coun. Diana Dilworth agreed, stating that negotiations with private landowners to secure amenities have been historically fruitful in Port Moody, pointing to developments in Newport Village, Klahanie and Suter Brook.

She said the proposal for the Flavelle Oceanfront site would result in an amount of green space on par, or even larger, than the current footprint of Rocky Point Park.

“But (the negotiations) have to be done in good faith,” Dilworth said. “That’s done not by threatening a private landowner.”

Dilworth added the city’s current plans will see a significant expansion of usable space at Old Orchard Park, as well as Rocky Point Park.

Coun. Samantha Agtarap said the city needs to be adding more park space, specifically in the “barren” Moody Centre neighbourhood, and it needs to be interconnected in a walkable network.

Regarding Rocky Point Park, she said there is a significant amount of publicly owned land currently serves as parking lots, and they need to consider whether design changes should be made.

But Agtarap said she didn’t think the Golden Spike Day Festival hitting capacity on one night was a proper way to judge growth issues at the park.

“I think it’s fantastic that it was essentially a sold out show, but it’s not a regular occurrence,” she said. “Golden Spike Days and Trooper are victims of their own success.”

Other councillors agreed. Coun. Callan Morrison said the only reason a capacity issue occurred was because it was a gated event with a liquor license, and Knowles noted this has only happened three times previously.

“I appreciate that there are members of the community that are looking for expansion of the park, I am absolutely open to discussions,” Morrison said. “But we don’t have more land down there, so the only way to do it is to really work with people and the neighboring property owners.”