Vancouver Parks Board commissioners voted last night to maintain funding to the Bloedel Conservatory and to close the Stanley Park Children’s Farmyard.
All seven Park Board members voted in favour of a plan to keep the Conservatory running, and again unanimously in favour of scrapping the farmyard, which opened in 1982.
Commissioners accepted a proposal by the Friends of the Bloedel Association and the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association to revitalize the Conservatory as a garden and education centre. The plan calls for it to be managed by a partnership of the VanDusen Botanical Garden and the Parks Board.
“We have a love and passion of the people of Vancouver with the education and dedication of the people at VanDusen Botanical Gardens,” Commissioner Stuart MacKinnon said.
The Farmyard has been running an average deficit of $166,500 plus $82,000 in maintenance costs annually. It will close on Jan. 2, 2011, following Stanley Park’s annual Bright Nights Christmas event.
