Local Government Parks

Parks in our neighbourhoods and regions bring myriad benefits to the environment and citizens.  They can protect environmentally sensitive areas, enhance our quality of life as an urban amenity, and increase property values.  Parks have recreation, scenic, contemplative, habitat and ecological values.  They help maintain ecological functioning in built areas and form part of the local government stormwater management system.

Identifying what parks and greenspaces will be created and how they can be used is done through Park and Greenspace planning. 

Park Creation

To create a park, a local government must own the land and make its intention to use the land as a park known.  Reservation or dedicating a park does not necessarily mean the park will be created and operated, but any municipal works or bylaws must be consistent with the reservation or dedication.  A Council may:

·          Reserve land to be used as a park.  Reserved park land can only be cancelled where the public have been given the opportunity of a counter petition and at least 2/3 of Council vote to cancel it.  Reservation does not mean that the local government must create or operate the park, but any municipal works or bylaws must be consistent with the reservation. 

·          Dedication of local government land.  Dedicated park land requires the assent of the electorate, unless the area is less than 5000 cubic metres in area.  As with reserved park lands, dedication does not require that the land be operated as a park, but any municipal works or bylaws must be consistent with the dedication.

·          Create a local improvement.  Small parks with an area of not more than one hectare may be created as local improvements by petition from the electors or on the initiative of Council;

·          Using undedicated or unreserved land.  A local government may just decide to treat a piece of its property as a park.  However, in the absence of a bylaw dedicating or reserving the land, or creating a local improvement, there is no legal commitment to maintain these parks.

Regional Districts may also acquire and operate parks under the Park (Regional) Act. 

Where greenways or greenspace, rather than park land, is required, Local Governments will often acquire and hold conservation covenants or other legal rights over private land, without actually owning the land.  This can be a cheaper option than owning and operating parks. 

The current provincial government has indicated an intention to introduce legislation that will affect how local governments may create parks.

Opportunities to acquire park land

A local government may purchase land from a willing buyer.  However, there are also a range of legal tools that a local government can use to acquire land:

·          Expropriation.  Local governments can use expropriation powers to acquire parks.   Expropriation is a forced sale of private land to the Local Government at the market price of the land. 

·          Subdivisions.  Subdivision applicants can be required to provide an area of park land of up to 5 percent of the total area of subdivided land. Alternatively, the owner of the land can provide cash in lieu of land, which must then be used to purchase other land for municipal green space.  The park dedication requirement does not apply where fewer than three additional lots are created (unless the lot being subdivided was created within the past five years), where the lots that are created are less than 2 hectares in size, or where the subdivision is a consolidation of existing parcels.

·          Rededicating highway land to parkland by bylaw.  The municipality must hold a public hearing before rededicating the land, but Council may close some or all of a street to traffic.  This is a particularly useful tool for the creation of urban greenways.

·          Donations of Land.  Land may be donated to municipalities;  the donor may impose legally enforceable conditions that the land be used for park purposes.

·          Zoning incentives. Developers can be encouraged to turn over additional areas to local governments for use as park lands through promises of a more favourable zoning on the remaining lands.  For example, using density bonus provisions of the Local Government Act, zoning bylaws can allow developers to increase density in exchange for providing amenities such as parks. 

·          Development Cost Charges.  Local Governments can pass bylaws that require developers to pay development cost charges to finance future park creation and improvement.  Development cost charges, must however, be reasonably tied to park infrastructure that services the new development and is part of the local governments’ capital expenditure plan or financial plan.

·          Highway right-of-ways.  On small development sites, a greenway trail right-of-way can be gained by dedication of the trail as a “highway” with construction of the trail by volunteer or public funding.

Public and Park Creation

A local government may consult the public on the location of potential parks as part of the development of its official community plan, or as part of more general Parks and Greenways Planning.  Beyond these avenues, however, there is little direct public involvement in creating local government parks. 

The one exception relates to small parks (under one hectare) which can be designated as a “local improvement.”  Residents of an area can petition for the establishment of a community park.  If the petition meets the Local Government Act requirements, Council will have the option of creating the park but paying for it through frontage, parcel or property value taxes levied on all property owners within the service area.  Council is not required to create the park simply because a successful petition has been received.  If Council tries to establish a local service park without receiving such a petition, it must obtain the assent of a majority of voters in the area in order to use this type of funding arrangement. 

Related Guide Pages:

·          Local Government Act

·          Park and Green Way Planning

·          Park (Regional) Act

For more information on local government parks:

·          West Coast Environmental Law, Smart Growth Guide to Local Government Law and Advocacy, Chapter 4, Greenspace and Smart Growth.

·          West Coast Environmental Law,  Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Legal Tools For The Voluntary Protection of Private Land in British Columbia

·          Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection and Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Community Greenways Guide – Linking Communities to Country and People to Nature (Victoria: 1995).