Park restoration begins in Johnstone Park

October 10, 2007

(Red Deer, Alberta) – After an unfortunate incident of tree clearing in Johnstone Park, The City has been working with the land developer Carolina Homes to bring this space back into a beautiful and unique community park.

“Some surface and grading work has already been done to the area ensuring that as much natural re-growth as possible of the trees and vegetation can occur,” says Parks Planning Coordinator, Trevor Poth.

The park area has been assessed by City of Red Deer ecological staff. Based on this assessment, it has been concluded the soil was not disturbed to the point of damaging the root systems and because the soil remained intact, much of the natural vegetation can re-grow.

A draft landscape and re-vegetation plan has been compiled and will be presented to the community for comment and input. This plan includes significant planting of indigenous trees and shrubs with varied maturity. Some of the trees being planted are so large that a specialty tree spade will be brought in to handle trees this large. The new plantings partnered with the natural re-growth will create a wonderful and diverse park ecosystem.

“We are looking forward to working with the community on a plan that makes this a useable and inviting park space for residents,” says Poth.

Carolina Homes has, and continues to work proactively with The City ensuring the development of an exciting park space that is responsive to community needs. Carolina Homes will pay all the costs of the restoration. Landscaping will take place throughout October and will be complete by September 2008.

On October 16, 2007 at 6:30 p.m. an on-site community meeting will be held at 39 Jarvis Avenue to review the concept landscape and reclamation plan.

For additional information see the Q&A Backgrounder

For more information, please contact:

Trevor Poth
Parks Planning Coordinator
(403) 342-5391

Notes to Editors:
1. The park site is divided into 2 pieces: the south eastern three quarters of the site is owned by the City of Red Deer and zoned P1 - Park, the north western site is owned by Carolina Homes and Zoned P1 – Park. The north western site will be transferred to the City once the Development Agreement is complete.
2. This parcel of land is zoned under the Land Use Bylaw as P1 – Park and the Neighbourhood Area Structure Plan shows the area as Park. In order to change the zoning an amendment would need to be made to both of these documents. The process for this involves a comprehensive public input process and approval through the municipal planning commission.