Bio-retention project St-Norbert / Parking lot

The councillor for St-Norbert had asked Entreprises Riel for assistance to see how we could address parking concerns for three growing groups in the area: the Marché St-Norbert Farmers’ Market, École Noël-Ritchot and the St-Norbert Community Centre. Working with the owner of an unused parcel of land that abuts all three interest groups, we managed the zoning, design, fundraising and construction of a new parking lot, serving as a critical piece of infrastructure to accommodate growth.

In doing so, a community advocate challenged us by asking that we go beyond traditional design and help find ways to recycle water runoff from the site, retain it and make use of it. This swelled (pun intended) into a massive undertaking involving multiple stakeholders and landowners. A new group was formed, and they decided to name the project Drainage Inside the Dike, as the 11 hectares involved were not draining properly as they were surrounded by a dike along the Red River.  In a nutshell, the project involved sculpting of land with berms, swales and rain gardens that would hold onto water and allow it to slowly seep into the ground instead of running off fast into the stormwater sewer system. Native plantings, such as Big Bluestem, Black-eyed Susans and Buffalo Grass, with their long roots, soak up some of the phosphorus and nitrogen that we do not want to get into our freshwater. Today, this bio-retention project solved much of the standing water issues for the Farmers Market, the Community Centre, the École Noël-Ritchot and the local community gardens. The school also uses the new development as a study site to teach students about environment and water stewardship.