Tree and Plant Screen Planned for Carlingwood Mall Parking Lot Borders

Anthem general manager Rob Caldwell shared planting plans for the residential edges of the new north parking lot. He was responding to questions from the Carlingwood Community Association. Anthem is the company that recently purchased Carlingwood Mall.

Q: What's going in along the residential edges of the North Parking Lot?

Anthem: A nearly unbroken line of evergreen trees will run along Haymarket Street and Saville Row, meant to block sightlines into the parking lot in every season:

• Eastern Redcedar ("Grey Owl")

• Colorado Spruce ("Blue Globe")

• Austrian Pine ("Green Tower")

About 65 of these evergreens are planned in total.

In front of and around the evergreens, dense beds of lower shrubs and flowering perennials will add colour and additional screening at eye level:

• Red-twig and yellow-twig dogwood

• Early forsythia

• Columbine, aster, bergamot (bee balm), and woodland phlox

Over 250 individual plants are going into these buffer beds along the street frontages.

Q: Why are you choosing these plants for the buffer?

Anthem: The evergreen row is the main visual buffer between the parking lot and the street. It's evergreen, so the screening effect holds up year-round, not just in summer. The shrub/perennial beds in front of it add seasonal colour and texture rather than a bare hedge line. Most species chosen are native or well-adapted to the local climate, which should support pollinators and require less maintenance once established.

Q: Did the concerns raised during the Carlingwood Community Association Meeting with Anthem factor into the buffer planning?

Anthem: Yes. Anthem Properties considered the concerns and concluded that we will be proceeding with an enhanced privacy shrub/planting plan along Haymarket Street that is designed to address light and noise pollution from the parking lot.