Changes are coming to Whistler's beloved Rainbow Park, but not everyone in the community is on board.
The Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) announced last month its plans to improve the site’s infrastructure, accessibility and design, all in an effort to help accommodate the increasing number of visitors heading to the park each summer. The catch? According to the RMOW, the park will likely be closed for a period of several months beginning later this year to accommodate the construction.
The upgrades will be funded entirely by Resort Municipality Initiative (RMI) money from the province and are slated for the area between the railway and the Alta Lake shoreline. The RMOW's current plans include expanding the existing beach area; building a new dock equipped with a hammock, stand-up paddleboard launch and accessible lift; creating a dedicated food truck plaza and adding more seating, as well as widening sections of the Valley Trail and repositioning the paved path to serve as a beachfront promenade.
A recently launched petition imploring the RMOW to reconsider those ideas—specifically those involving the new Valley Trail location—has meanwhile earned more than 2,500 signatures.
With this in mind, Pique polled 201 readers last week and asked the question: What do you think about the RMOW's plans for Rainbow Park renovations?
The poll ran over five days, from Feb. 3 to Feb. 8. Of the 201 votes, we can determine that 46 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:
Results are based on an online study of adult Pique Newsmagazine readers that are located in Whistler. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 6.85%, 19 times out of 20.
Pique Newsmagazine uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
- With files from Robert Wisla
