Disc golf clash splits North Vancouver neighbourhood

Controversy over disc golf is splitting a neighbourhood in North Vancouver and pitting some park users against each other.

The issue hit North Vancouver City Hall this week, where council unanimously passed a motion to look at solutions for the crowding and clashes at Eastview Park, a West Lynn-greenspace with a disc golf course that has become very popular since the start of the pandemic.

The problem is, it’s pretty much the only option for disc golfers in North Vancouver, and some of the neighbours say that has led to confrontations over golfers’ conduct, saying they drink alcohol, smoke cannabis, and throw their “dangerous discs” around.

“Last week, on a nice day I said to my children, ‘Let’s go walk through the park.’ Instantly and without hesitation, my children fearfully pleaded, ‘No mommy, it is going to be full of frisbee people,'” said one local resident, speaking at Monday night’s city council meeting, adding the park has a sinister, unwelcoming quality about it.

“I never see children playing in the park casually anymore … we should be seeing children climbing trees, jumping in puddles and running at full speed, breathless through Eastview Park. Instead, we now have over-privileged, entitled bullies smoking and drinking in our park. Gone is the sound of children’s laughter, the magic of childhood.”

Another upset resident, who says he’s lived in the neighbourhood for 50 years, had plenty to say about a group of disc golfers he claims were about to play toward a group of children.

“I’m 75 years old and don’t have 20/20 vision, but I could see kids playing,” he told council. “I say to them, you can’t throw those discs, there are kids down there. Do you know what they said to me? ‘Those kids are malleable, they can run.’ What an attitude. It was disgusting. It’s an extreme danger.”

Others speakers showed varying levels of disdain or support for the disc golf course before council voted in favour of the motion, asking staff to evaluate options including “possible relocation of disc golf to another city or Metro Vancouver park.”

Athal Christie lives next to Eastview Park, and is a North Shore Disc Golf Club board member, and says the club is also working toward solutions, working with what he calls a small group of upset neighbours and their “perceived impact in the park.”

“Certainly, in the last year, we’ve made huge improvements to try and reduce those kinds of concerns and conflict,” he said.

“Everybody wants to use the park without having to worry about getting hit in the head with a disc. I think there’s a way we can have safe usage.”

Christie suggests redesigning Eastview in a way to minimize conflicts between disc golfers and park-goers. He adds the club is working on another disc golf course created on the North Shore to alleviate the pressure on Eastview Park.