A meadow with wildflowers and wild grasses will sprout up on part of the Fifth Street boulevard — despite concerns of some Queen’s Park residents.
The initiative is part of the City of New Westminster’s 2022 biodiversity and natural area strategy. It defines the city’s parks and open spaces as hubs and seeks to support biodiversity in these natural spaces.
At its March 24 meeting, six residents addressed council about the city’s efforts to create a nature habitat on the Fifth Street boulevard as part of the strategy. Some residents urged council to restore the boulevard to its previous green lawn, while others encouraged the city to proceed with the naturalization strategy.
Gail Ancill said she's pleased the city removed the logs and mulch that were first placed on the boulevard. While the new plan is a better option, she said most residents would prefer grass on the boulevard.
Four residents voiced concerns about the naturalization project and about a lack of consultation with residents about plans for the boulevard.
Grant Penner, who lives on Second Street, said he was “bewildered” at the city’s decision to rewild the Fifth Street and Second Street boulevards. He said this “gem of the neighbourhood” is being significantly altered with something that is creating a “horrible, ugly mess,” costing money, and lacking information about its environmental benefits.
“It seems to me that this project has lurched from one bad solution to another in search of a problem that doesn't exist,” he said. “The grass boulevard was beautiful and has been for decades, and the new one is hideous.”
Myles Liversidge expressed “deep concern” about the city’s handling of the project.
“It's my opinion that elected officials are here to serve the people. We expect transparency, consultation and respect for the voices who are directly affected,” he said. “We urge this council to engage with the community, listen to our concerns, and ensure that future directions or decisions reflect the wishes of the residents.”
Community support
Two New West residents spoke in support of the project at Monday’s council meeting.
Juno Avila-Clark urged council not to put the initiative on hold. He said everyone in the city is already affected by the climate crisis, and the use of public land should reflect that reality.
“We will all benefit from higher biodiversity, from rewilding the space, from flood control and cooling provided by these spaces,” he said. “City boulevards are not private space. When an issue is affecting the entire community, we need to join forces and work together to take care of one another.”
Monday’s agenda included a motion from Coun. Paul Minhas recommending the city’s biodiversity strategy, as it pertains to the rewilding and naturalizing of Second Street and Fifth Street boulevards, be placed on hold until October 2026. Minhas’s motion also recommended that a neighbourhood consultation plan be developed and shared with council regarding any future naturalizing or rewilding of the boulevards in Queen’s Park or other neighbourhoods throughout the city.
Avila-Clark said the motion impacts naturalization efforts citywide, not just in Queen’s Park.
“It's obvious … this motion that the real goal is slowing down climate solutions in the city,” he said. “This is such a shame, not just because these climate-mitigation strategies are urgently needed, but because they have the potential to be so beautiful. I think that everyone should get a chance to see more native plants in their neighbourhood and learn about their importance.”
Naomi Perks, whose Second Street home looks out onto the boulevard, said the motion is not about consultation but about delaying implementation of the strategy.
“The city's biodiversity strategy is already an adopted policy, built on expert research and public engagement. Its goal is to improve biodiversity, combat climate change, and create a healthier urban environment. Rewilding and naturalization are essential components of the strategy,” she said. “Pausing these efforts for another two years, or a year, means stopping progress on sustainability, biodiversity and our climate commitments.”
Perks said many heritage cities around the world have successfully integrated rewilding into their historic landscapes.
What did council do?
By placing the biodiversity strategy on hold until October 2026, Minhas said the city would be acknowledging the importance of public input.
“Developing a neighbourhood consultation plan ensures that the residents are actively engaged and informed about the proposed initiatives, fostering a sense of ownership and accountability,” he said.
Fontaine supported Minhas's motion to pause the biodiversity project on Fifth Street.
“While it may not seem like a lot to some people that the grass has been ripped up from a boulevard and replaced by massive logs, mulch, leaves, other small bushes, and then only to have that removed, it does mean a lot to the community of not only Queen's Park but, I believe, actually our whole city who cherish Queen's Park as not only a beautiful place to visit and to walk, but a beautiful place to live,” he said. “It is an amazing gem and something that we should all cherish as a community.”
Citing concerns about community opposition and cost, Fontaine supported putting the project on hold until October 2026, saying it could be an election issue.
“Let's get the grass planted,” he said. “Let's allow people to play Frisbee, sit on the grass, enjoy that boulevard.”
Coun. Tasha Henderson expressed concern about politicizing the strategy by tying the project to a civic election.
“I’m uncomfortable with the idea of bringing work to council and politicizing it in terms of suggesting that this become an election issue,” she said. “I think we ought to just do the good work because that's what our job is here to do.”
Mayor Patrick Johnstone said some work on this project was done in 2023, but it was after the large logs arrived that residents became vocal about the naturalization initiative.
“We haven't really had negative pushback to renaturalization in other neighbourhoods that's been going on around the community, and we didn't really have negative pushback to the lower part of Fifth [Street] when it was done,” he said. “So, if staff were somewhat surprised by the negative feedback that came in these most recent changes, then I give them a little bit of grace in that.”
(Following the council meeting, the Record received a letter from a Fifth Street resident stating it is incorrect to say no one complained to the city when it began to implement changes on the lower part of Fifth Street. The resident said they complained to the city about the plan and the lack of consultation and later had to spend hours “weeding the dandelion infestation that sprouted” up in the boulevard.)
Johnstone said Minhas’s motion made no mention of bringing grass back to the boulevard, which suggested it would remain as is.
Saying Minhas’s motion may not have been as clear as it could have been, Fontaine moved an amendment which stated that the Fifth Street boulevard would be returned to its previous state, prior to the rewilding pilot project.
Johnstone and councillors Henderson, Nadine Nakagawa, Ruby Campbell and Jaimie McEvoy opposed Fontaine’s amendment.
Instead, a majority of council voted in favour of a motion put forward by Johnstone, one he said was consistent with correspondence staff has presented to the community.
- That staff complete the revised naturalization work on the Fifth Street median between Third and Fourth avenues, then it take at least a year to allow the area to establish and conduct an evaluation of the initiative with the neighbourhood regarding the initial work and any related next steps biodiversity natural area extension. (Fontaine and Minhas opposed this part of the motion.)
- That no further expansion of naturalized areas in Queen's Park neighbourhood boulevards be undertaken until after this evaluation, and only after consultation with the community, including considerations of the Queen’s Park heritage conservation area landscape guidelines. (Council unanimously supported this part of the motion.)
“Give it some time to plant, to grow in, give it time for the native plants to grow in, and then let the community have a conversation about whether this is something that they approve of or don't approve of,” Johnstone said. “As was said to me by someone else: ‘You don't judge how good a road improvement project is while you're digging the road up. You wait till the road is done, and then you evaluate it.’”
Coun. Nakagawa said council had received a Feb. 19 email from staff stating that work on the project was being paused, and the city would not be moving forward with further naturalization efforts at this time. She also expressed concern about council members bringing forward “politicized” motions.
“I'm willing to support this, because I do think an overall conversation, more conversation with community, the entire community, on these types of projects, is helpful,” she said. “I want to put this in the context of climate action.”
What do staff say?
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks and recreation, said the direct costs associated with the program are about $5,000 to $6,500. That’s for the initial planting materials and the recent purchase of seed mix.
“The initial installation had plant materials installed; the value of that plant material is approximately $5,000,” he said. “Those particular plants have subsequently been removed in the past weeks, and those plants are now transplanted and have homes, if you will, in other naturalized areas around the city.”
According to Gibson, work on the initiative equates to approximately three weeks of staff time over a three-week period. He said the work was done intermittently by two to four staff members.
Gibson said the city has not been able to determine the cost of staff time and equipment, as the city’s internal accounting mechanisms don't allow staff to delve into that level of detail without a considerable amount of additional effort. He said staff are happy to “dig into costing at a more detailed level” but it will take some time.
Gibson said city crews installed the logs on the boulevard. He said a contractor, who was working on another capital project and had equipment that was not available to the city, removed the logs in about a day and a half.
Fontaine pressed for details about costs related to the contractor.
Lisa Spitale, the city’s chief administrative officer, said staff would have to do more research and will report back to council.
Erika Mashig, the city’s deputy director of parks, policy and planning, said the next step will be to be place two inches of soil on the boulevard and seed that area with a pollinator mix for local bees, which can grow to about five to six inches. She said it can be mowed to about three inches.
According to Mashig, the mix has been used in Saint Mary’s Park (next to École Qayqayt Elementary School) for about a year.
“This is a subjective opinion, but it looks great,” she said. “It's very lush and green and a little more puffy, I would describe it, than mowed turf lawn. And pending the weather, the rain, you can get more or less flowers throughout the season.”
