Visitors to Vancouver's Stanley Park could be in for a surprise the next time they take a trip around the popular tourist attraction.

A clear-cut at Stanley Park's Prospect Point area is making way for a parking lot.
(Charlie Cho/CBC)

Instead of the usual trees, they will find a new parking lot at Prospect Point, an area of the park hit hard by last winter's devastating wind storm.

To create space for the parking lot, loggers have clear-cut an area the size of a football field, a move that alarmed one visitor, but will be to the benefit of the park in the long-term, said park supervisor Eric Meagher.

"In the end, it will mean a cleaner and safer Prospect Point,'' Meagher said.

Once the new lot is built, an existing lot on the edge of Prospect Point near the seawall will be torn up and returned to its natural state.

The work is continuing in spite of a civic strike that has entered its second month.

Still, not everyone is so enthusiastic about the visual impact of the clear-cut area, which has taken on the appearance of a logging camp.

"It's a very sad thing, very emotional, actually, if you've been here many many times," said tour bus driver J.R. Panerio. "I can't believe what I'm seeing."

Work on the car park began after roughly 3,000 trees were destroyed by hurricane-force winds in mid-December.

The cost of restoring the affected area has been estimated by Vancouver Park Board staff at $9 million.