Many people are wondering about the fencing that runs along Downsview Park’s Keele Street border and questioning the validity of rumors that a shopping mall or a condo is being built.

Let’s set the record straight. Downsview Park is building a lake.

The fencing seen stretching alongside Keele Street has been erected for safety reasons; it surrounds the area where a new nine-acre lake, or stormwater management pond, is being built. No mall. No condo. The lake will have a public lookout point and will be edged with aquatic plants. The lake is one element of a new stormwater management system that will help cleanse the water traveling through the soil of Downsview Park before it reaches the Black Creek system. It will not only function for the benefit of the community but will also be a great place to visit, learn and experience great things.

The soil excavated for the lake will be used to create another park feature, the Mound, and will be used to build up other areas in the park. The Mound is one of Downsview Park’s most prominent landscape elements. Situated on the highest point of the site, it will be a natural landmark that offers an open, elevated vista in all directions, keeping with the spirit of Downsview being at the height of the Don and Humber rivers’ systems. The northwest side of the Mound will be an unobstructed grassy slope that will transform into a tobogganing run in the winter.

More than 75 per cent of the trees that had to be moved for the lake’s construction have been replanted elsewhere in the Park.

For more information on construction of the lake and the stormwater management system, please refer to the January issue of Downsview Park’s e-Newsletter  or contact our main office at 416-952-2222.

Visitors passing by 70 Canuck Avenue may have wondered what was up this winter when they saw drilling machinery, pipes and metal frames sticking out of the ground.

What went UP were three 3,000-square-foot greenhouses. The greenhouses are part of a new three-year Urban Agriculture Pilot Project in Downsview Park. The Urban Agriculture Pilot Project is approximately three acres in total area and includes outdoor plots for a variety of users, from organizations to individuals of the local community. The intent of the pilot project -- located south of the building occupied by Toronto and Region in the north-west portion of the property, on an interim basis -- is to provide a means for various community groups, individuals and urban agriculture organizations to create locally grown, organic produce from within an urban centre, while testing a range of technical and programming issues to be deployed in the Cultivation Campus in a more permanent way in the future. This future campus, in the south end of the Park, will include a strong educational component. The site has been prepared for spring 2009 planting, by cultivating the soil, roto-tiling and depositing leaf compost to increase organic content.

If you’re interested in obtaining information about greenhouse or outdoor plots, please contact Jim Dow at jdow@downsviewpark.ca or 416-952-2222.

What went DOWN were 25 pipes into 480-foot deep bore holes for the new geothermal system for the building at 70 Canuck Avenue and the greenhouses next door. Geothermal systems use the earth's natural heating and cooling abilities to control the heating/cooling systems in buildings. Built in 1971, the ’youngest’ building on the site, the building at 70 Canuck had the most potential to be challenged for this transformation and our tenant and kindred spirit in the quest for sustainability, Toronto and Region Conservation, did its best to move this process forward with us.

The installation of the underground piping system is complete and work is underway on final mechanical modifications and new thermal windows/frames, which will be completed in May. The new geothermal system will improve the building's energy efficiency and reduce reliance on carbon-based forms of energy as part of PDP's sustainability mandate

Other features of Downsview Park under construction:

Sports fields
Check out the next issue of Downsview Park’s e-News for information on the new washroom/change room pavilion with many fabulous eco features!

Downsview Park is taking steps to make every aspect of park construction sustainable. Take a look at the many ways construction can be eco-friendly…

All metal, i.e., rebar collected during deconstruction activities, is recycled off site.

Resurfacing of the parking lot and road area between 65 Carl Hall Road and 75 Carl Hall Road will begin at the end of May and continue to mid July.

The old asphalt will be removed and recycled. The exposed parking lot area will be covered in ‘engineered soil’ to create a ‘tree root zone’ for tree roots to extend into and under the parking lot. Engineered soil also filters water running off the parking lot. Parking spaces will be topped with permeable unit pavers, which are concrete paving stones separated by narrow gaps that are filled with sand or gravel for water drainage to the soil beneath. The roadway will be delineated by generous landscaped areas with trees and bioswales surrounding the parking lot, for stormwater runoff.

For more information on engineered soil, please visit Cornell University’s website or review this Discovery Channel article.

For more information on permeable pavers, click here.