The City of North Vancouver’s Eastview Park is set to become home to a new purpose-built nine-hole disc golf course and trail.
Mayor Linda Buchanan made the announcement at Eastview on Thursday.
Disc golf has been one of the fastest growing sports because it is affordable and accessible for people of all ages and abilities and it gets people out into nature, Buchanan said. But it has had a contentious history at Eastview since it was first established in the park in 2009.
Neighbours have complained to the city about having to dodge flying discs while they walked trails that criss-crossed fairways. They have also reported players smoking, drinking or consuming drugs on the course, damage to vegetation, and intimidating behaviour from a small portion of the golfers.
Council debated removing disc golf from the park entirely and relocating it to somewhere outside the city, but a majority voted in 2024 to ask staff to redesign the park so it works better for all users.
“This project represents years of planning, technical expertise and most importantly listening to our community,” Buchanan said. “Good parks don’t ask people to choose between recreation and nature. The best parks successfully support both.”
The new professionally designed course is kept to the inner portion of the park. For those coming exclusively for a walk or roll through the trees, the city will be stitching together a series of trails around the perimeter to create a contiguous gravel path.
“Ideally, less conflicts, less having to yell ‘fore!’” said Allison Tweedie, parks planner.
The only other options for disc golf on the North Shore are a short course near Rockridge Secondary School and an 18-hole course at the top of Grouse Mountain only available to pass holders. The District of West Vancouver has also announced plans for a disc golf trial on the Ambleside Par 3 golf course in winter.
The Eastview Park project has a budget of about $300,000. The work is expected to take three months.
Tweedie acknowledged that the vision is a compromise and that some neighbours won’t be pleased with the final result.
“There’s definitely residents that aren’t happy with disc golf being in the park at all,” she said. “We’re hoping that even if disc golf wasn’t something that they necessarily wanted, we’re going to be improving the situation and improving the sense of safety and comfort.”
Other residents have shown excitement for the changes, Tweedie added. Among them is Richard Howard, an executive with the North Shore Disc Golf Association.
“We think it works well. Our hats are off to the staff as well that did their due diligence in finding out how to make a decent park work for everybody, and our hats are off to the council and mayor for supporting it,” he said.
Howard said he’d never even tried the game until he heard about the controversy in 2023. He came to check out the park for himself and a stranger invited him to play a round. He’s played almost every day since, gaining a lot of good friendships along the way.
“I was sold at that point,” he said.
In 2025, the city cleared some dead and dying trees left damaged by the looper moth infestation and drought, but no further trees will have to be removed for the coming park improvements.
“That’s the big thing,” Tweedie said. “Because it’s a really special forest ecology here, our goal is to have as light a footprint as possible.”
Part of the budget will go toward new split rail fences to help keep disc golfers out of the rough, so to speak.
The association is well aware of the sport’s history and the neighbours’ concerns, Howard said, adding that part of their job is to ensure the sport is played “fairly, quietly and enjoyably with others.”
The course, which was designed with the help of a disc golf consultant, is good, Howard said, particularly as the game can still be played in a forested area.
“It allows people to get in the trees in nature and I think that’s a big plus for people,” he said. “We’re just looking forward to seeing it get finished and get out here and play.”