The Vancouver Park Board has put off voting on a controversial plan to pave a bike path through part of Kits Beach Park.
Commissioners were set to vote on a report on the project Monday night, but instead decided to send it back to staff.
“We just didn’t have enough information tonight and Kits Beach is too important to not protect it and take care of it,” Sarah Kirby-Young told CTV News.
City staff, in a report to the park board, says the separate bike lane is necessary to avoid conflicts between “cyclists and pedestrians in this short stretch of seawall due to an abundance of shared pathways and poor wayfinding cues and signs.”
Howard Kelsey, co-chair of the Kits Beach Coalition, said he’s “ecstatic” that the vote has been delayed, and hopes whoever replaces Mayor Gregor Robertson after the October election will shift the city’s priorities away from cyclists.
“This was a very important decision,” Kelsey said. “Cyclists should be able to go wherever they want to go, but not at the expense of pedestrians [and] traffic.”
The park board has been working on developing a separated bike path for Kitsilano Beach Park since 2013, and held three public engagement processes over four years.
