Planning begins on park near NWCC

Dartmouth South residents will soon see plans to develop the wooded area between HomeBridge and the North Woodside Community Centre (NWCC) into a park.

The Pleasant-Woodside Neighbourhood Association (PWNA) and NWCC surveyed residents last year about the area, with improved access and safety among chief concerns. HRM took note of the interest and recently assigned planner Stephen Cushing to work on the project.

Grant MacDonald, chair of the PWNA board, told The Post that the area had been zoned as parkland “but had really been a forgotten little plot in the neighbourhood.” MacDonald, NWCC board member Aaron Taylor, and HomeBridge executive director Ernie Hilton met with Cushing on Feb. 5 to discuss survey results and next steps.

Taylor told The Post that the city will now “put some pen to paper.” HRM is also interested in infrastructure renewal, with possible improvements to the nearby playground, sidewalks, and parking lot.

Public consultations could begin as soon as midsummer, Taylor said. Both Taylor and MacDonald noted a history of criminal activity in the woods, with Taylor explaining that typical youth “shenanigans” have sometimes escalated.

“A lot of this thought process has been about opening sight lines and just getting more foot traffic in the area to discourage that kind of behaviour,” Taylor said. “If we can have a bit of a collective vision as to what we want to see coming out of this, we might end up with something really nice at the end.” MacDonald agreed. “It could be a human friendly space, a more usable natural environment.”