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Nearly 20 years after residents of a southeast Calgary community were evacuated from their homes, contaminated lands that once housed an oil refinery are on track to be resurrected as a public park this fall.

It’s been a long, painful road for the area that between the early 1980s and 2001 housed a community of more than 200 homes and condos, before the discovery of toxic hydrocarbons were discovered in the soil, forcing most residents to leave forever.

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But 17 years after the community was largely abandoned, it’s set to rebound later this year following a $31-million effort to remediate the 32-hectare site, which stretches between Beaverdam Flats and Deerfoot Trail under the Calf Robe Bridge.

Gian-Carlo Carra, the local councillor, said the area now dubbed “Refinery Park” offers an amazing opportunity to create an inner city park from the ground up.

“What we have basically is a blank slate right now. The major thrust has been to get it safe for human use,” he said.