A walk through the Escarpment View Lands in 2030.

It is a sunny Saturday afternoon in August, 2030. I’m waiting for some friends at the new picnic area on what was the former Jannock brick property. We have decided to check out the new “gateway” park.

I have arrived early. I want time with my memories before my friends get here. I was here with my grandmother many years ago. We harvested giant puffballs before the New Tremaine Road was built. Gran had shown me where one of a few brick plant used to be. She described how she had watched the land change over forty years, the trees grow, and the scars left by years of brick manufacturing and clay extraction fade away. I was just a little kid when I was last here, but I remember it like it was yesterday.

My friend Mithra will be here soon. She’s coming by bike. It will be an easy ride for her up new Tremaine. Malika and Peter are catching the bus at the mall. It will be their first time on one of Milton’s new electric buses. Malika is pretty pumped about that. She’s been accepted into the “Climate Change and Environmental Sciences” program at Milton’s Laurier campus. Electrical vehicles are her passion.

Arjun said it’s a short walk from his home at the north end of Milton Heights. There’s a trail at the end of his street that connects to the new park. He’ll use the same Tremaine Road underpass at Sixteen Mile Creek that the deer use! He has seen their tracks often on his warm-up jogs to the Velodrome for volleyball practice.

I don’t live far from the park, but I’m a bit lazy and I want to show off my graduation gift from gran - an e-scooter! My family lives in a condo in what used to be the Robertson Screw factory on Bronte. I also have to work tonight and figure I can charge my scooter at one of the park’s charging stations while we hike.

I haven’t seen my friends since school ended in June and I am really looking forward to catching up. Plus, we’ve heard great things about this new park. It stretches from Steeles to Kelso and is supposed to be bigger than Stanley Park! We just have to follow the trail from the picnic area, cross old Tremaine and then follow the markers to the quarry ponds. The Town’s website describes the lands west of old Tremaine as “passive park”, a “naturalized landscape”. It won’t have the amenities that the Jannock park has, but I prefer that. [Note to self to fill up my water bottle at the refilling station before we head out.]

My gran lived on old Tremaine Road, north of the tracks for almost 50 years. She would often walk along the apron of the escarpment before it was a public park, even before the Town owned it, and even before the developers who conveyed it to the Town owned it. She let me come with her a few times on her walks. She showed me the little waterfall just north of Steeles. We saw the occasional deer and lots of snapping turtles. I saw more Blue Herons than Green and I saw a Pileated Woodpecker just one time. The anticipation that I might see any one of these today thrills me now as much as it did then.

Gran never took me swimming, but she told me she used to swim in one of the ponds on really hot days. I don’t know if that is allowed, but I’ve brought my bathing suit just in case. It has been so hot this summer, but that seems to be the norm. You’d think I’d be used to it.

Gran told me about all the trash that people dumped by the ponds over the years. Imagine! Who does that?! She cleaned up a lot of it. Gran always took a garbage bag with her when we went walking, but there was just too much garbage around the third pond – old tires, heaps of broken glass, rusty jagged metal. She carried me when we went to that pond because she was afraid I might fall and cut myself. Gran was so happy when the Town partnered with Field & Stream and Sustainable Milton to clean it all up. I wonder if I will even recognize it.

Gran also showed me where the parking lot that had once been used by the workers at one of the brick plants was. By the time I saw it, it had been covered with soil and planted with all sorts of trees, shrubs and wildflowers. The wild Bergamot and New England Asters are her favourites. There were just a few patches of asphalt still poking through. Maybe they are covered now too. I promised gran I would take some pictures. I’ll see her tomorrow. I promised to take her to pop-up farmer’s market at the Italian Cultural Centre on my scooter.

Gran can’t walk to the ponds any more, but she will be delighted to know that she can join me on my next visit to the Jannock portion of the park. The paths can be easily navigated by those with mobility issues.

Gran moved to Milton’s “tiny home” community a year ago. She loves the community garden. There is a small building that serves as a common meeting place. It has a book exchange, a quiet place to read and a fitness room. She can grab a coffee with friends or take in a lecture (thanks to Laurier!). The Milton Seniors’ Centre and Library also offer programs there. Gran volunteers at the adjoining day care. She reads to the children.

The “tiny homes” are all powered with renewable energy. There’s a car share program (all electric cars) and a small grocery store. A nurse practitioner from the hospital visits on-site twice a week. Gran says it has everything she needs.

I’ve heard Laurier is planning its residence for grad students using a similar model. Construction starts next year. Laurier received funding from the Region to set aside 10% of their “tiny homes” for Milton Transitional Housing clients. They will have access to bridging courses and will get free tuition for their first year. I think that is amazing!

I am really excited to tell my friends about my summer job and to hear about theirs’. I am working for a company producing solar panels. It used to manufacture auto parts, but has been repurposed. There’s a huge demand for solar panels now that developers (thanks to the Town’s green energy incentive program) are offering home buyers the choice of solar panels or green roofs. Thanks to changes to the building code and local incentives, shingles will soon be a thing of the past. Plus the disposal fees for shingles are double what they used to be. Arjun is working for one of the landscaping companies that build the green roofs. He is really busy!

What excites me most though about the hike today is that it combines history and nature! Not only has nature reclaimed the land from the long defunct brick plants, but the Town has restored some of the foundations and has installed interpretive plaques along the trails which tell the story of the old brick works and some of the workers and their families. This is such an important part of Milton’s history and hardly anybody knows about it.

Gran likes that I am a history buff and supports my dream of becoming a planner. I haven’t decided yet whether I want to focus on land use or heritage planning. When she heard about my plans for today, she sent me a copy of a report about Milton Heights and Peru - “An outline of the history and characteristics of the Milton Heights and Peru Character Areas of Milton” (PD-027-12). It provides a fascinating history of this area, its significance as a major source of brick, lime and limestone and its significance as one of a few industrial villages. Gran loves that report. She says it inspired her back in the day when she and a bunch of her neighbours took on a group of developers. She constantly reminds me that planners need to see the bigger picture like Milton’s Heritage planner back in 2012 did when she endorsed (maybe even wrote it!) that report. This is gran’s favourite part of the report:

“The modest houses that characterize the Milton Heights and Peru areas may only appear of marginal architectural significance when viewed in isolation. However, their cumulative impact on the character and appearance of the area is profound. These houses are of considerable historical importance as they are all that remains of a once thriving industrial community that had an enormous impact on the character and development of the Town of Milton as a whole”.