A vacant piece of land on Drouillard Rd. is getting a facelift thanks to the Ford City Neighbourhood Renewal project.
The corner of Drouillard Rd. and Richmond St. will be transformed from vacant land into a parkette designed by Glos Associates in an effort to clean up the neighbourhood. "It's a gathering spot that's going to be safe, secure and very pretty for people to sit, and have a coffee and exchange, and just sit and talk to their neighbours," says Marina Clemens, executive director of Drouillard Place.
Aaron Ashley from Glos says they worked with the neighbourhood and the Windsor Police Service to come up with the design. "To create a small, little area that is more of a positive than the negative space that it is now. It's more of an urban beautification project," says Ashley. The Windsor Police Service was involved in the design to ensure public safety was considered. "It's the transformation of space from undesignated space which carries high risk and vulnerability from a public safety perspective to a space that's actively engaging and allows for positive activity generation," says Barry Horrobin with the Windsor police. The project will cost around $60,000, most of that coming from in-kind donations and a grant from a local company Veresen Inc. through its community investment program called Reach.
The parkette is expected to be completed by September.
