A plan to allow RV camping in the Jericho Beach parking lots on the West Side of Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics has been approved. (CBC)

The Vancouver Park Board has approved a plan to allow hundreds of recreational vehicles to camp in the parking lots along Jericho Beach and Spanish Banks during the 2010 Olympics.

The decision came after a tense and noisy meeting on Monday night during which a large group of residents opposed to the plan interrupted much of the debate, prompting commissioner Ian Robertson to tell them they were out of line.

"If you think you're going to bully the board and bully me into a decision by speaking out of turn and yelling — it ain't going to work," said the veteran commissioner.

But local resident Larry Bongie predicted the RVs will bring added noise and congestion to the Jericho Beach neighbourhood on the West Side of Vancouver.

"This is not a nimby manifesto. It's just that I don't think you can plunk down 365 dwellings, because that's what they are even if they have wheels, and up to 1,200, perhaps even 1,500 residents, on this narrow strip of beach land that lies adjacent to a residential area without creating some kind of impact," said Bongie.

But in the end, despite the resident opposition, the park board commissioners voted 4-1 in favour of the plan to spend up to $300,000 to hire a management company to run the site from Feb. 10 to March 2, and to pay for maintenance and a shuttle service.

The campers will be charged $95 a night for one of 110 spots at Jericho Beach or one of 255 at Spanish Banks. If all 365 spots are filled during the Games, the plan could make more than $400,000 in profit, staff said.