The bike garden offers children and adults a practical, fun and safe way to develop cycling skills and learn about pedestrian road safety
VANCOUVER – The city of Vancouver and its partners invite members of the community to a grand opening celebration from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 8, for the Heights Bike Garden located at 5411 E. Mill Plain Blvd., Vancouver. The bike garden – the first of its kind in southwest Washington and one of the largest in the world – offers children and adults a practical, fun and safe way to develop cycling skills and learn about pedestrian road safety.
The new bike garden will provide a temporary community use for the former Tower Mall property while work continues on the Heights District – a development plan for a vibrant, mixed-use, walkable neighborhood in the heart of Vancouver.
At 10 a.m., the city will host a brief speaker program featuring remarks by city project staff, key project partners and Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, followed by a celebratory ribbon cutting.
What: Heights Bike Garden Grand Opening Celebration
Where: 5411 E. Mill Plain Blvd, Vancouver
When: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, June 8
Helmets are required for all bike garden riders per VMC 9.62.030. Bike Clark County will provide complimentary helmet fittings at the event.
On June 1, city staff volunteered time to help paint the miniature streetscape design. Video and photos of the bike garden as it nears completion can be downloaded here. The finishing touches are going on this week.
The Heights Bike Garden is a City-funded project developed by the City’s Economic Prosperity and Housing Department and made possible by the collaboration of several partners.
Garden design and planning were provided by First Forty Feet, the local urban design and planning firm hired to design Vancouver’s Heights District Redevelopment Project and downtown’s Waterfront Gateway public plaza. Fionnuala Quinn, Discover Traffic Gardens, provided consultation on the design and implementation. Architectural fabricator Keith Larson created the garden’s prism-like mural structures. Artist Gillian Wynne created the gardens’ streetscape mural. PBS Engineering and Environmental, the firm hired by the City for all infrastructure design of the future Heights District, donated picnic benches and furnished food and supplies for volunteers.
Getting there
Limited free parking is available on-site. Entrances for parking are located on Blandford Drive (west of the bike garden) or Devine Road (east of the bike garden) from Mill Plain Boulevard.
C-TRAN’s The Vine Red Line Devine Road stop provides direct access to the garden.
Information provided by the city of Vancouver.
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Help me out here, folks. Do I understand it right… the city paints an empty parking lot a bunch of colors and pictures, calls it a “bike garden,” states it is only temporary until construction begins, and then toots its own horn as if this is something great and newsworthy? Did I get it right?
“The Heights Bike Garden is a City-funded project developed by the City’s Economic Prosperity and Housing Department and made possible by the collaboration of several partners” (emphasis mine)…. dang, I am sooooo happy to see my tax dollars being used this way.
I’m breathless with excitement.
Just more of the fluff that mayor anne is so good at. Please, oh please, someone else who is qualified run against her next election and let’s kick her to the curb. She is a large part of what is wrong with Vancouver.