Lower Don project gets funding to match expected growth

Dennis Hanagan –

Evergreen at the Brickworks wants communities bordering the Lower Don River Valley to have better access to that green space, one of the city’s largest natural respites.

The communities in mind are Cabbagetown, Riverdale, Corktown, Riverside, Riverdale, Regent Park and East Chinatown.

“There are a lot of people who live up on the edges of the Don Valley and they don’t have any access to the valley. You’ve got the Don Valley Parkway, the railway tracks and a river so we want to improve access to the Lower Don,” says Evergreen spokesman Anthony Westenberg.

“You longingly look over the DVP and you ask how do I get over that corridor to get to a wildlife corridor. We’ll invite the whole community to participate in this process in terms of access.”

Council voted in June to partner with Evergreen, a national non-profit organization, and have it raise $5 million in third-party funding as part of the “Ribbon Campaign” to help with Phase 1 of the city’s Lower Don Trail Master Plan.

In its role, Evergreen will continue its long-established mission to bring city dwellers face-to-face with nature, says Westenberg.

“Evergreen was established 23 years ago because we really thought there was a disconnect between city dwellers and nature. Evergreen feels city dwellers need to have nature in their everyday lives or we’re not going to care about (problems facing) the rainforest or the polar bear,” says Westenberg.

Along with better access, work will include capital improvements, art installations, special events, heritage interpretation and educational nature programs.

Referring to the regeneration and re-naturalization work already done by the Task Force to Bring Back the Don, Westenberg said “we’re standing on the shoulders of giants with the work we want to embark on.”

A May 2014 report to the Parks and Environment Committee said that in the next 20 years intensification of the Lower Don Valley neighbourhoods will bring an estimated 80,000 new residents to the area.

“These new residents will significantly increase the demands put on the Lower Don River valley lands as a place to recreate, commute and travel through,” says the report.

Westenberg says the plan is to make sure that population increase doesn’t cause stress on the valley.

“Part of the conversation is how would we build this so that there wouldn’t be stress because for us the environment and restoration protection is a very crucial pillar.”

The city is looking at getting some of the work underway this fall. “I think the 2015 Pan Am Games is giving us a little bit of an impetus,” says Westenberg.