Installing permeable paving in laneways is an opportunity to beautify the right-of-way for residents while improving their environmental performance, by increasing stormwater infiltration, benefiting the entire city.

The Laneway Puncture Demonstration Project is a community-centred greening project for two public laneways in the City of Toronto: Willowvale Lane and the laneway beside Fred Hamilton Park. The project demonstrates the viability of a unique landscape intervention strategy that reimagines the ecological and stormwater management capabilities of public laneways.

“Laneway Punctures” are strategic incisions along the central drainage channels of paved laneways, which are repaved with open-celled pavers and planted with hardy, nursery-selected plant material. In addition to beautifying the landscape and enhancing biodiversity, punctures increase ground permeability and divert stormwater from the municipal sewage system by allowing it to percolate more slowly into the city’s soil.

The Laneway Puncture Project Group worked with the Beautiful Streets division of Transportation Services to plan the infrastructural work at each demonstration site, and with two groups of local ‘laneway stewards’ to develop and implement a maintenance plan that will keep the Laneway Puncture in good health while passing on monitoring and stewardship skills to the two communities.

NEIGHBOURHOODS

Christie Pits | Trinity Bellwoods

FUNDERS

Live Green Toronto | City of Toronto Beautiful Streets

PARTNERS

David Suzuki Foundation | City of Toronto Beautiful Streets | Friends of Christie Pits | Friends of Fred Hamilton Park