By Brooke Larsen - Staff Reporter

Boats will replace blooms starting today (Friday) near the pier at Port Moody's Rocky Point Park.

To make way for temporary boat parking during construction of a Boathouse restaurant, parks workers will be removing flower beds and nine maple trees growing on a traffic island, Port Moody spokesperson Colleen Rohde said Thursday.

According to a news release, the maples will be replaced by 18 trees planted elsewhere in the park, in keeping with the city's tree replacement policy.

Rohde said annual flowers are usually removed from the beds this time of year to make way for spring-flowering bulbs.

"They're annuals, and what they do is take them out and plant bulbs that come up in the spring.

"Of course, they won't be planting the bulbs because the island will be gone, but the bulbs will be included in the overall landscaping plans for the park once the construction is finalized."

Rohde said it's important that the parking spaces are available before the Labour Day weekend, a popular time for boaters.

"We wanted to make sure the parking lot is there for them that weekend," she said.

Disabled parking will be maintained at the eastern edge of the parking lot, according to the news release.

A total of 20 parking spaces for boats and 18 for cars will be available during construction of the restaurant, which begins after Labour Day.

The city is also asking park users without boat trailers to use the expanded lot on Murray Street at the main entrance to the park, which has 136 spaces, including 41 new ones added during the recent park redevelopment project.

A public consultation will take place to decide how many permanent boat trailer parking spots will be created after construction of the restaurant.

The boat trailer parking working group will be working with city staff to address boaters' parking concerns.

The working group will also consider a proposal to add boat trailer parking signs, build a pedestrian access ramp at the west end of the West Coast Express parking lot, reconfigure street parking on Esplanade and Columbia streets and add additional dock space at the park's boat launch.

The restaurant is expected to open in spring 2007.

published on 08/25/2006