The chopping was fast and the community consultation was negligible, according to one neighbour who is decrying the city’s recent decision to fell 15 trees near Mahon Park.
“It was a lovely park, now it’s a wasteland,” said Keith Road resident Nick Orchard.
The city chopped the alder and cherry trees along a trailhead near the western edge of the park to make way for 43 metres of pipe for city heating utility Lonsdale Energy Corporation. Council made the decision in March based in part on a staff report that stated the work was “not anticipated to impact significant trees.”
Orchard said he was informed of the project on Sunday, July 16. Workers chopped the trees one day later.
While the city has been thorough and diligent on bike lane consultation, there was “no consultation at all,” on the tree chopping, according to Orchard.
Besides city signage, the contractor sent a letter to residents in the area to advise them of the impending work, said city spokeswoman Connie Rabold.
Signs were erected in the area, but, in a “piece of comedy befitting Monty Python” they didn’t go up until after the trees had been felled, according to Orchard. He added while there was a letter mailed to residents that mentioned LEC’s hot water pipe running down Keith to Bewicke Avenue, there was “no mention whatsoever of the sharp right turn into Mahon Park.”
When undertaking underground work with no long-term community impacts, city staff advise neighbours but don’t typically spearhead a consultation process, according to Rabold.
The trees were cut after an arborist determined they could pose a hazard to workers, Rabold said. The city is planning to replace all the chopped trees she added. LEC is also slated to contribute $10,000 to the city towards removal of invasive species.
Orchard took issue with the assertion the trees presented a hazard, arguing that city staff previously assured him the trees were “perfectly healthy.”
The city is slated to restore the area “to an esthetical and biological condition that matches as close as possible the current site,” according to a city staff report.
The work has also exacerbated an already-difficult parking situation, according to Orchard.
“We’ve already got parking issues because there’s no parking on the street.”
Parking arrangements have been made along the 600 block of West Keith Road and West 14th for the duration of the project, which is slated to wrap-up in mid-September, according to Rabold.
Putting the pipe through Mahon is crucial to link LEC with the pet crematorium Until We Meet Again. In October 2016, city authorized a $3.25 million loan to LEC to install a heat recovery system at the crematorium, allowing LEC to use heat that would otherwise leach into the atmosphere.
The connection also allows LEC to recover heat from the forthcoming wastewater treatment plant and add St. Thomas Aquinas to the network served by the utility, according to a city staff report.
LEC currently serves about 3,700 households clustered in Lower and Central Lonsdale, as well as Harbourside and Marine Drive.
