Green Necklace

The Green Necklace is an urban greenway that forms a 7.5km scenic loop around our City centre, linking historic parks and buildings, public spaces and commercial areas.

An off-street multi-use path, the Green Necklace provides a safe transportation and recreational route for all ages and abilities. We designed the Green Necklace to enhance walkability in the City with important connections to other trail systems such as the North Shore Spirit Trail.

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Sustainability

By providing alternative transportation options with routes between the Lonsdale central business district, major parks and open spaces, the Green Necklace contributes to reducing automobile trips and traffic congestion thereby improving air quality and reducing community greenhouse gas emissions.

The Green Necklace also provides a network of habitat linkages for urban wildlife between existing green spaces with street trees and naturalized landscapes. Along the Green Necklace route, bio swales and rain gardens expose natural processes that are typically covered over in the urban environment.

The Green Necklace enhances the social sustainability of the City by encouraging community interaction, fitness, safety, as well as easy access to parks, open spaces and streets. The Green Necklace enhances the walk-ability and in turn, the livability of the City of North Vancouver.

History of the Green Necklace

The idea for the Green Necklace began over 100 years ago! Edward Mahon, a central figure in the North Vancouver Land and Improvement Company, pictured a "Grand Boulevard" encircling the new city. This idea was influenced by the Garden City and City Beautiful planning movements of the late 1800s – a response to the deteriorating conditions of industrial cities in Europe. Mahon said:

"Completion of this great public way, with the supporting parks and gardens, will perpetuate health areas and pleasure grounds within a short distance of every resident of the present City of North Vancouver, and our municipality will have the distinction of possessing the most spacious boulevard contained within the limits of any city in the world – a great artificial lung, encompassing the central town, breathing, pressing, forcing into it health and vitality . . ."

"This recognition of the connection between people’s health and our environment is still as relevant today as it was when the City first began."

This connection between people’s health and our environment is as relevant today as it was during the early stages of our City.