This week at city council, topics such as trampoline park regulations and electric vehicle infrastructure are on the agenda.
Richmond's city council meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday, June 25 in council chambers at 6911 No. 3 Rd. The public is welcome to attend or watch an online broadcast of the meeting. Here’s a deeper look some of the agenda items:
Electric vehicle infrastructure
It’s no secret that rising gas prices are draining wallets rapidly. For some, it seems to be the perfect time to switch over to an electric vehicle.
Right now, the city has charging stations at the Olympic Oval, Steveston Community Centre, Thompson Community Centre, Cambie Community Centre and City Hall. While the charging stations were used 776 times when they were installed in 2013, usage has grown to nearly 11,000 in 2017.
Now, the city is working to expand its publicly accessible electric vehicle charging infrastructure, both at city hall and at the Olympic Oval, including adding fast charging stations which could charge vehicles in well under an hour, as opposed to the two to eight hour charge times the current charging stations require.
City staff also recommend implementing a “cost recovery approach to impose user fees and time limits for publicly accessible electric vehicle charging stations.” Currently, use of city-run charging stations is free.
Regulations for trampoline parks
Vancouver Coastal Health officials are calling for provincial and municipal regulations and standards for trampoline parks following a fatality at Richmond’s Extreme Air Park and a rising numbers of trampoline-related injuries reported at local hospitals.
Richmond’s Medical Health Officer Meena Dawar wrote to Mayor Malcolm Brodie on April 24 asking his government to require trampoline parks comply with ASTM International standards, which govern design, manufacture, installation, operation, maintenance, inspection and major modification of commercial or institutional trampoline devices found in parks.
“The use of trampolines for recreation at home or at trampoline ‘parks’ has exploded,” Dawar’s letter said. “Richmond Hospital Emergency physicians have become concerned with the rising number of injuries occurring at local trampoline parks.”
Now, the City of Richmond is expected to ask the provincial government, via a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, to amend its laws.
With files from Graeme Wood
