Help shape the future of Country Hills Park

• respond to community priorities for the par
• reduce future flood risks
• protect and improve water quality
• are technically workable
• and fit within the project budget

Thanks for your helpful feedback about the wet areas of the park. We will consider this feedback. The area near the creek and the baseball field is within a GRCA-regulated floodplain and may not be possible for such construction. We will consider wet areas when creating design options for the stormwater feature. 

We've posted a survey to hear from the community on what amenities are important to them in the park. Active sports surfaces? A chance to connect with nature? Play opportunities? We're very interested to hear back from you on this. This feedback will help us plan what to do with the tennis court area, which is now in disrepair. 

Thank you for your question. Our current plan is to construct park enhancements in 2025. At that time, we will add a stormwater facility to the area that is now a tennis court. The stormwater facility added to that area of the park will be a pond or an underground storage facility. We will collect community ideas and input throughout various phases of design. The community's input will help inform the final design, including whether the final design includes a tennis court. Please subscribe to this page and watch for a survey later this year and a first info night in early 2023.

Thank you for your concerns about the trees. Unfortunately, we will have to remove some trees to install the underground storage facility. We will assess each tree to determine its health and whether its removal is essential. Our planting plan will include the replacement of removed trees.

We will make every effort to keep as many trees as possible. We will consult with the Forestry team as we design the stormwater facility. We will also follow Kitchener's Sustainable Urban Forest Strategy. This strategy sets out the City's commitments to protecting and expanding our tree canopy.  

Thanks for your input and thoughtful insight. Given the costs of maintaining washrooms we typically locate them in larger community level parks such as Victoria Park. We have also been hearing a lot about off-leash areas recently and know that the City needs more of these areas throughout the City’s parks. The Parks Department is currently working on our Parks Strategic Plan – Places and Spaces to look at where our parks are located and how they are programmed. The feedback you have provided here would help inform our Places and Spaces plan, for us to better understand what the community wants to see in their parks. If you wish please check out our Engage Page and check out our Places and Spaces project.

Thanks for your question. It is still too early to know what park improvements will look like. Later this year, we will post a survey on the Country Hills Park Engage page to ask how people use the park and what experiences people want to have in the park. We will use this input to help generate design ideas as we balance the new stormwater facility with park improvements. Please subscribe to the project's Engage page to receive project updates.  

Thanks for your questions and for letting us know that shade in the playground is important to you. We want to understand how people use the park and how the park space can better support the community into the future. We will use your input to help generate design ideas as we balance the new stormwater facility with park improvements. Watch for a survey this fall.

We will provide concepts later on in the design phase of this project. Watch for future meetings to discuss plans. Please subscribe to the project's Engage page to receive project updates.  

It is still too early to know what type of stormwater management facility we will add to Country Hills Park. We may build an underground stormwater storage facility which would not be visible from the surface. Another option we are exploring is to create a wet pond. Wet ponds hold water between rains.