Your Midtown KW Neighbourhood

You might recall that the Uniroyal Goodrich Park on Guelph Street is slated for a park rehabilitation.

We received this update by email from Jonn Barton at the City of Kitchener. Jonn is heading up the park improvement plan and wanted to notify people about the latest plans.

Jonn writes:

This email is to make you aware that some work will be completed in the park in the coming weeks as part of the park rehabilitation project and the city’s Emerald Ash Borer project.

It has been decided that the construction phase of the park rehabilitation will not start until spring of 2017 to allow full exploration of all the options that we are currently working with in the active design. However some of the preparation for this work can go ahead this fall or winter. This will include the removal of dead trees and shrubs, as well as a selection of invasive and undesirable species, within the unmaintained vegetated area along the length of the park border with the Spur Line Trail. Part of the park rehabilitation plan is to correct the grading issues that currently exist on some areas of this slope, as well as introduce native undergrowth and tree species to create more naturalized area within the park (one of the recurrent requests from residents in the survey) and aid with stabilizing that slope.

In order to do this effectively, and eliminate potential safety concerns, we must at a minimum remove the existing dead material. Since we will be doing this we will use the opportunity to also remove a small selection of the non-native species that out-compete and suppress native species – these are Manitoba Maples (which are considered an invasive species) and Norway Maples that are either severely stressed already or immediately within an area where removals are occurring. A number of residents have expressed concern that the city may decide to remove the sumacs in this area as well, however I can assure you that we will be actively trying to preserve them. Due to the nature of the work being performed there will inevitably be some points from the park with additional vegetation loss just to allow access in, but every effort will be made to keep this to an absolute minimum.

At the same time as city crews are completing this work they will complete the previously scheduled removal and stumping of ash trees within the active area of the park (which is the grove of trees in the north-west corner of the park) as part of the city wide Emerald Ash Borer project. The park rehabilitation design still includes a plan to replace these with a grove of fruit bearing trees, as part of the construction phase in the spring. Also, prior to any of this KW Hydro will be conducting a pruning of trees within the park that affect their lines.

The end result for now will likely be noticeable in this area of the park. It is a necessary step though to correcting some of the problems there and allowing some great ideas for the space to come to life instead.

Thanks for your ongoing patience and understanding as we continue to work through this project. If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact me. I will also make a summary of this information available on the park web page on the city website and place signs at the park ahead of the work to be performed by city crews so that others will be aware of this upcoming work as well.

If you have questions or comments, you can reach Jonn with the contact information below.

Jonn Barton  OALA (Associate), BLA, BA

Associate Landscape Architect

Design & Development | Operations Division | City of Kitchener

519-741-2600 ext. 4152 | TTY 1-866-969-9994 | Jonn.Barton@kitchener.ca