The official address is 31 Rochester Street. It's between Primrose and Albert on the east side of the street. Most plots on the western side get some pretty good sunlight, but the small plots on the east side are shaded by buildings and trees. The front lawn is also fairly shady (blame the tree!!!!).
Here's a pic of my plot from mid-summer. What a difference, eh?
This block of Rochester is part of the Lebreton Flats. It's the southern edge of the area that was razed by the NCC in the 60's, and has some older buildings that were retained (like the buildings on either side of the garden) while others were torn down. In the late 70's, the NCC developed a plan for what was then called Phase 1 of the Lebreton Flats renewal.
A call went out asking for groups to develop small parcels of land. The offer was in large part taken up by co-ops and non-profit housing providers, who all built groups of rental townhomes or low rise multi-residential buildings for low and moderate income tenants/ co-op members. The community heating plant was built as a demonstration project by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Originally intended to provide heat and hot water to the whole area, it now heats 150 units from Tompkins Coop on Preston Street to CCOC's 5 storey apartment building at 170 Booth Street.
Interesting that CMHC runs the heating plant. I didn't know they were in that line of business. Maybe they should sell it to the heating customers for $1 and turn it over to the community. But then, again if it's now over 30 years old, it might need some significant investment.
ReplyDeleteI always thought CCOC owned the heating plant. A few years ago we had to dig up the whole garden so that repairs could be made to the heating plant beneath it, and it was the CCOC that sent out the request for volunteers. Their head of maintenance and their landscaping contractor were among the volunteers.
ReplyDeleteThe heating plant is owned by CMHC by managed by an administrative board made up of representatives of CMHC, CCOC and Tompkins Coop. At the time of the roof repairs there was no garden coordinator (she'd moved away and lost the list of garden contacts), so CCOC sent out the request to the community. It's pretty amazing that a non-profit housing group has helped to start this community garden not once but twice now. We're very grateful for their support.
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