Your Countryside Park, your watershed

October 29, 2024

5 to 8 p.m.

Alpine Public School, in the gym (75 Lucerne Drive)

Please register

It has been a while since we asked for feedback on how you use Countryside Park in Winter 2023. We appreciate your patience. We’re ready to share an initial design that the community’s feedback helped shape! As we prepare for stormwater measures in Countryside Park, we want your feedback on this design.

About the open house:

• Learn more about the project and review the design.
• Drop in anytime. Staff and consultants will be available to receive your feedback and answer questions.
• Free light dinner and children’s activities will be available.
• During this event, join Reep Green Solutions for a Nature in Your Neighbourhood Walking Tour at 6pm! Event details are available on Eventbrite.

If you can't attend this in-person event, you can participate virtually. We will post materials on the project page for you to review and comment on close to the event.

We are still exploring design options for the stormwater features for Countryside Park. We will be providing updates about an open house when we have a design to share. Thank you for your patience!

In the meantime, some of you have asked, “What more can be done in our neighbourhood to reduce the amount of runoff that reaches the park/creek?”

As you know, we are working to better manage runoff in Balzer Creek with a stormwater project in Countryside Park. Meanwhile, our partner Reep Green Solutions, can help residents who live upstream from the project manage rain and reduce runoff that reaches the park.

The Rain Smart Neighbourhoods Project helps you plan projects for your yard that will help reduce flood risk in the neighbourhood by planting more trees, building rain gardens, soaking up rain in permeable paving, and more.

This spring, join Reep’s Healthy Yard Webinar Series to learn how you can make changes in your yard that will improve the nature in your neighbourhood and extend the benefits of this project! You can also learn more about Healthy Yard Consultations, available to residents who want to help reduce flood risk for the neighbourhood with actions in their own yard.

Register for the webinar series at reepgreen.ca/events

Webinars include:

• Healthy Yards: Nurture Nature in Your Neighbourhood - March 28, 2024 from 7 to 8 p.m.
• Healthy Yards: Rain Garden Design and Construction - April 3, 2024 from 7 to 8 p.m.
• Healthy Yards: Nurture Nature in Your Neighbourhood - April 10, 2024 from 7 to 8 p.m.

It has been a while since we updated you on this project. Thank you for your patience while we slowed down our design process to get this project right. In January 2023, we invited you to complete a survey to help us understand park use and what the park means to the community. Thank you to all who participated and shared their input.

Here is a summary of the results of what we heard. For a more detailed report on what we heard from you, please read the summary: Winter 2023 What We Heard Report

We received 20 surveys. Thank you for sharing your input! Here are some responses you shared:

You described the park as:

• “An accessible space for sports, recreation and family”
• “A peaceful, open space to connect with nature”
• “Trails are useful for connecting neighbourhoods”

You feel comfortable and safe in these parks:

• “We spend time in the park all year-round”
• “Love to visit the park alone and with family”
• “Quiet place to relax”

You have ideas for changes to the parks, including:

• “Nature studies for students”
• “More seating could improve accessibility”
• “Trails are muddy and wet in spring”

What’s Next for Countryside Park?

Your input from the survey is being used to inform concept designs.

Thank you for all your questions. You can find an updated FAQ page with common questions and answers. We look forward to hosting a project open house this year and will share more details soon.

If you haven’t already, please subscribe for updates. Add your email to the Stay Informed box on this page, then click ‘Subscribe’. If you have any questions, please contact us at countrysidepark@kitchener.ca.

Our first survey is now open. Help us understand how you use Countryside Park and its amenities so we can best integrate the new stormwater ponds into the park space. With your input, we will create preliminary concepts that are relevant to the community. You will get to consider these design drafts and share your feedback when they are ready. The survey is open until Jan. 30, 2023.

Answer the survey

Thank you for your continued interest in this project. We are nearing the end of the field assessment and monitoring phase. During the next engagement phase, we will open a survey to learn more about how the community uses Countryside Park. Stay tuned for updates in 2023.

Thank you for your questions and feedback. We are continuing to do an initial assessment of soil conditions and the water table. Subscribe to this page for information about the next phases of this project.

Preliminary concept from the 2016 Stormwater Master Plan

We added a preliminary concept to the document library. This shows early ideas for the stormwater management ponds in Countryside Park. This concept is from the Stormwater Master Plan, approved by Council in 2016.

Do you need an accessible version of this document? Please get in touch with Chris Nechacov Chris.Nechacov@kitchener.ca, 519-741-2200 x 7148

Geotechnical Investigation:

You may see heavy equipment such as an earth auger within the park in the next week or two. This is to see the conditions of the soil which is necessary to begin the design. If you have any questions, please post them to the Questions tab or reach out to the project team.

In 2016, the City of Kitchener Council approved a stormwater master plan. This plan created a strategy to manage stormwater for the next 15 years. Through this plan, we learned that only 25 percent of runoff in the city is managed through stormwater facilities. This means that 75 percent of runoff from heavy rainfall and snow melt flows into storm sewers, contaminating local creeks.

The master plan identified initial concepts for the installation of projects across Kitchener. As we look at each project more closely, we will examine the technical feasibility of adjusting the designs to meet community needs.

The Government of Canada awarded us nearly $50 million through the Disaster Mitigation Adaptation Fund. Access to this funding means we can install needed stormwater measures at a reduced cost to the community. And we can do this much sooner than would have been possible without the funding. We need to comply with funding requirements, which places an extra constraint on these projects.

We consulted city-wide on the stormwater master plan. That consultation met the needs of the master plan. But as we look closer at specific projects, we need to consult further with the community.

Consultation for the Class Environmental Assessment

This project was approved by the Ministry of the Environment in 2016 as part of the Integrated Stormwater Management Master Plan (ISWM-MP). If community consultations lead to required project modifications, we will seek to amend the relevant planning tools -- in this case, the Class Environmental Assessment, under which the ISWM-MP was completed.