BERT FLINN PARK TODAY

Twenty years ago, the citizens of Port Moody B.C. fought city hall and aggressive developers by voting overwhelmingly to establish Bert Flinn Park in 311 acres of largely undisturbed mountainside forest.

Today Bert Flinn is the city’s largest and most tranquil nature park, and supports a diverse ecosystem that includes endangered frogs, deer, bear, cougar, and lynx.

Most human activity in the Park is centered on an old, discontinued roadbed and nature trail that runs through the heart of the Park. The roadbed and trail are used intensively by hikers, joggers, young families, kids walking to school, mountain bikers crisscrossing the Park’s meticulously crafted routes, and locals from five neighboring communities who walk their dogs in the popular off-leash zone.

YOUR PARK IS IN DANGER

Unfortunately the Park’s tranquil character, intact habitat, and community uses may soon become a thing of the past, because the old roadbed running through the heart of the park was never included in the parklands and is now vulnerable to conversion into a busy traffic corridor.

At the urging of some in city hall, an out-of-town developer is making plans to finance and build a noisy, high-traffic corridor along that roadbed and trail spanning the entire breadth of the Park.

RUINING BERT FLINN PARK WILL NOT PREVENT TRAFFIC CONGESTION ON IOCO ROAD

In theory this so-called David Avenue Extension would be built to absorb traffic congestion from a coming residential development being built by a Hong Kong developer on the Park’s far side, located primarily in Anmore.

Though the developer has claimed that this traffic corridor will prevent further traffic increases on Ioco Road, this claim is hard to believe, because Ioco Road will still be preferred by a growing number of commuters along PoMo’s booming north shore, and because the sprawling new community that the developer seeks to build at the end of Ioco Road is bound to worsen congestion on Ioco even if the Bert Flinn road goes through. For locals, this is a lose-lose proposition.

The high-traffic corridor through our Park would also require construction of a massive auto bridge that would pass overhead dangerously near the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery, cutting into the Park’s pristine, fragile watershed, and imposing steep bridge-maintenance costs on PoMo and/or Anmore taxpayers in coming years. Make that a lose-lose-lose proposition.

SAVE THE PARK, SIGN THE PETITION

While we are not generally opposed to further development on the north shore, let us join together in preserving our most important nature reserves, such as Bert Flinn Park, while our communities grow around them. The reason many of us live here is because we treasure the exceptional paradise of natural beauty that surrounds us, and this is what has made housing in our area so very desirable.

Please sign our petition to tell city leaders that you support taking a more sensible approach to north shore development. In her classic song, Joni Mitchell lamented how ready some people were to "pave paradise and put up a parking lot," only to regret their loss in the end. Make clear that “paving paradise” in Bert Flinn Park to fill it with car traffic is absolutely the wrong way to grow our community.

PETITION: We urge the town councils of Port Moody and Anmore to collaborate in protecting to the fullest extent possible the natural integrity and tranquil character of Bert Flinn Park for the enjoyment of future generations. Specifically, we urge Port Moody to:

1. Immediately and permanently annex the Park’s old roadbed and fully incorporate it into the Park’s lands protected from development.
2. Suspend indefinitely any plans to build a busy roadway through the Park and de-link any decision regarding the Ioco Lands development proposal from required construction of a Park road.
3. Go back to the drawing board to find a less damaging solution to address traffic congestion to and from Anmore.