ELORA – For a couple of years, Shawn Watters would look out the window of his Elora office and let his mind wander.
What could become of the former gas station in the core of the village’s downtown?
Eventually Suncor, the owner of the site at Mill and Metcalfe streets, demolished the building, removed some material and fenced off the site.
Watters, a landscape architect, obtained from the township a site plan drawing of the property and started sketching out what he would like to see there “with no real thought that it would ever turn into anything.”
Watters didn’t know it, but at the same time a small group of local residents and businesspeople were also looking at the site and seeing what could be there.
“We sat for at least a year with an ugly vacant lot there,” said Amy Corner, chair of Elora’s Business Improvement Association, “so a few of us started talking about trying to have it turned into a park or something.”
Centre Wellington Township Coun. Kirk McElwain also got on board “and began to seriously represent the idea to the council,” Corner said. “That’s when the wheels began to turn much more quickly than our small group of citizens could have made them turn.”
Township officials began negotiations with Suncor, eventually gaining permission to use the property as “greenspace,” since the province would not allow them to call it a park because of the contamination still below the surface.
“We began to seriously look at ways to use this property because it is so integral to the downtown,” McElwain said at the site Saturday, as a small army of residents gathered to plant more than 100 donated shrubs.
The BIA chipped in $8,000 to the project, and also obtained a $25,000 interest-free loan from the township to make Watters’ vision for the property a reality.
Locals have taken to referring to the project as “Corner Grass,” a take on the Canadian television series Corner Gas about life in a small-town gas station.
McElwain said everyone knows the greenspace could be temporary – as Suncor could decide to sell the property if it finds a buyer willing to deal with the contamination from decades as a gas station – “but in the meantime we have this wonderful space for people to sit or take in a performance or whatever.
“I think this is a good indicator of what this type of property can be used for,” McElwain added.
Watters’ son, Haydn, has been photographing the transformation daily. Watters said eventually those photos will likely be compiled into a video to illustrate the potential for derelict service stations.
“We know similar properties all over Canada sit vacant and unused for years because nobody steps up and takes ownership of them,” Corner said. “We’re trying to show you can do something with them and turn them into usable community spaces.”
The transformation should be completed within a couple of weeks, though Watters said it will be a couple of weeks after that before the fence comes down and people can start using it.
“It’ll be like a picture people can look at but can’t use,” he laughed, “but we have to make sure the turf takes root before we have too many people on it.”
After so much time wondering what could become of the spot, Watters is looking forward to being able to use it.
“I might even get wi-fi from my office over here.”
This piece was featured in the June 25, 2012 edition of the Guelph Mercury. To read it online, click here.
