Beginning Friday, Jan. 13, if you find yourself near the lawn at Victoria’s courthouse, you will notice that remediation work is underway to transform the space into a new playground.

During discussions with neighbours, a playground emerged as the most popular choice for the block-wide site. Remediation work will remove contaminated soil and begin the process of creating a safe public space and playground.

The testing of soil samples determined the presence of residual contaminants, including lead, gasoline, diesel and trace amounts of methamphetamines, following the existence of a homeless camp. Soil remediation will remove these contaminants from the ground and restore the landscape into a safe public space and playground for everyone to enjoy.

Two arborists have been involved in reviewing the condition of the landscape and the trees on the site and surrounding area. Of the 20 trees at the courthouse site, 11 are healthy and will be preserved. Every effort will be made to preserve as many of the established trees as is safe.

Nine trees have been identified as having shallow roots, making them unsafe and unlikely to survive the soil remediation. These include seven crimson king maples, one tree of heaven and one rubinia. These trees will be removed and new trees will be planted to improve sightlines and increase public safety. Crime prevention through an environmental design approach will be taken.

Transformation of the site is still in the early planning stages. The remediation work is expected to be completed in February. As part of the remediation, tree removal will begin first. The most vulnerable trees will be cut down, chipped and cut into manageable sizes for removal.

After that work is done, the top .46 metres (1.5 feet) of soil will be dug up, removed by truck and replaced with new top soil. Every consideration has been made to minimize the noise for the neighbouring area; however, there will be considerable noise on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13-14, to allow for the on-site cutting and chipping.

A finalized redevelopment plan will be completed in the coming weeks. The public space and playground is scheduled to be ready for use by spring.