Activated and lively public spaces, services, and amenities bring people together. By making it easier for people to connect, we will build a community where everyone feels they belong.
A growing city needs public spaces and services that grow with it. We will continue to renew aging roads, sidewalks, utilities, parks, and civic facilities, while making strategic investments that keep pace with growth and deliver long-term value and enhance the liveability and quality of life for all residents.
Art is for Everyone
New Westminster is a city of artists. Let’s celebrate this by increasing the accessibility and affordability of arts programming across our community.
Actions:
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Ensure the Massey Theatre is a place of community, performance and learning for artists of every kind.
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Expand access to arts and recreation programming by offering more affordable, low-barrier arts classes in partnership with local organizations.
- Make public arts spaces more accessible through flexible rental policies and innovative grant programs that help local arts organizations thrive.
- Support arts organizations to grow by fostering creative partnerships, artist residencies, and programming in public spaces.
- Create more opportunities for local artists to enrich public spaces through investment in public art, grants, residencies, performances, and cultural programming.
Vibrant Public Spaces
By investing in the public spaces and infrastructure that connect our community, we will build a city that is safe, accessible, and prepared for the future.
Actions:
- While keeping pace with growth, plan to ensure existing amenities are maintained and preserved, and projects are shovel-ready when senior government grants are available.
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Deliver a downtown library where families can learn and grow.
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Ensure that community amenities in the West End and Connaught Heights are prioritized in the design of new development around 22nd Street Station.
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Finalize site-specific Joint Use Agreements for each school to manage the shared use of green spaces and maximize opportunities for community uses of school spaces.
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Deliver the all-weather field and track in Queensborough and work with the community to set priorities for the next phase of sports investment in Queensborough.
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Explore revised swim programs that would allow kids to move through the levels faster and work with the School District to bring swim sessions to more schools in January 2027.
- Make Westburnco work for more users.
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Make universal accessibility the standard for transportation, parks, public spaces, and civic facilities.
Parks, Playgrounds, and Trees
Our green spaces are more than just places for social gatherings and recreation. They are also an important part of our climate resiliency. Green spaces make communities safer, cleaner, cooler, and more welcoming.
Actions:
- Plan for the future with strategic investment in land to build parks and green spaces that meet and exceed community needs as New West continues to grow.
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Prioritize:
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A multi-purpose Downtown recreation-centre
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A new covered outdoor multi-sport court
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Queens Park Stadium upgrades
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Upgrading existing sports boxes
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Increasing the number of pickleball courts
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A third sheet of ice
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Ambitiously pursue the creation of a riverfront connection between Sapperton Landing and the Quay and find opportunities (Queensborough beach, Muni Evers Park, Cumberland Park) to connect people directly with the river.
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Preserve Poplar Landing as green space for the community in perpetuity.
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Commit to robust Urban Forest targets to gift future generations a city with 27% forest cover.
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Bring nature back into our city by exploring opportunities to restore buried streams and waterways and strengthen New Westminster's urban natural environment.