Buckmaster Park area improvements

Construction is complete in Buckmaster Park! We have a few items that will be finished in the spring, including the seating and stage area, shrub bed planting and sport surfacing for the basketball hoop, but the park has been reopened for public use. We hope the community can enjoy the upgrades we’ve made this winter! 

In 2023 we accomplished a lot, including:

• Removal of the former basketball court, several full and partial pathways, turf, site furniture, and dead trees.
• Preparatory work for the new pathway and lighting.
• New timber stair construction.
• Concrete seating wall installation.
• Installing new site furniture and lighting.
• Installing concrete pavers for the central pathway, lookout space, and seating area.
• Installing a new asphalt pathways and concrete plaza around the fitness node.
• Installing a large boulder seating wall.
• Completion of the fitness node including pour-in-place surfacing and new fitness equipment.

Click to enlarge images.

We discovered some challenges with the location originally planned for the seating area and stage. During construction projects, it’s common for crews to uncover conditions on a work site that can’t be accounted for during the planning process. With these new learnings, we will pause construction of this feature within the park so we can consider other design options and adapt our design to the realities of the space. We expect to finish these final aspects this spring as weather permits.

These projects are all part of the Established Area Growth and Change Strategy. This program provides funding to support short-term (1-3 years) public space improvement projects in established communities where growth and change are happening. The Strategy connects planning, financial and investment decisions to provide the assistance that established communities need to support growth that is currently taking place.

The Buckmaster Park Area Improvements project builds on recommendations from the Bankview Planning & Development Committee and the This is My Neighbourhood: Bankview project.

The redevelopment of the Buckmaster Park area will highlight existing features and improve activity spaces to support play, gathering and travel through the community.

The project will allow residents to move around their community with more ease and safety and will also activate lost spaces to create stronger community connections.

The City engaged the public to collect feedback on both 26 Avenue S.W. and Buckmaster Park over Summer 2021. Due to COVID-19, most engagement efforts were virtual, resulting in 3,921 citizen visits to our Engage website and a total of 350 contributions. From this feedback, we compiled a What We Heard Report, which can now be found on our website.

We learned about what the community liked and where they had concerns, which helped prioritize several infrastructure items near the Park including sidewalk improvements, installing new sidewalks where there aren’t any currently, and improvements to get to and from Buckmaster Park.