When Shaminder Parmar bought his first home in Laurel, much of the southeast neighbourhood was still under construction, surrounded by empty fields.
“I remember telling my then-fiancée: ‘I think I made a mistake,” he says. “I’m originally from New York City, so I like the hustle and bustle of people. I wasn’t used to coyotes, geese and rabbits running around. But Laurel has come a long way since 2016.”
That’s an understatement.
Over the last eight years, Laurel’s population grew by more than 5,000 people. A new school, Svend Hansen, opened for Kindergarten to Grade 9 students. The neighbourhood also started its own community league. Shaminder, who works as an urban planner for the Edmonton Public School Board, was elected president in 2023.
“Our street is mostly starter homes with some move-up market homes,” he says. “I think every single home in my cul-de-sac has a basement suite where you have a different family there. We know affordability is an issue, so these secondary suites are helping families afford their mortgages. It’s really good because in a lot of East Asian cultures, such as mine, we are very close-knit with our neighbours, so if I’m going out to the grocery store, the people downstairs can help take care of my kids and we’re going to reciprocate when they have to go somewhere.”
Laurel is part of a larger residential area known as The Meadows. It’s just east of Mill Woods and includes seven neighbourhoods of single-detached homes, townhomes, duplexes, apartments and plenty of green spaces. Together, they’re bordered by 34 Street, Whitemud Drive and Anthony Henday Drive. More than 43,000 people live in The Meadows, which would make it the 9th largest city in Alberta—just ahead of Spruce Grove, Leduc and Cochrane.
Shaminder’s family has also grown since 2016. His then-fiancée, Anne, is now his wife. They’re the proud parents of two sons, Ranveer and Sartaj. She’s a Grade 3 teacher at Svend Hansen and lives close enough to walk to work each day.
Anne loves living in The Meadows.
“To me, it’s the first diverse place I ever lived,” she says. “I grew up in small towns and because I’m mixed—my father is from Afghanistan, my mother Sri Lanka—it was hard to feel like I fit in anywhere. But here, we have people from India, the Philippines, different parts of Africa and South America.
“It’s so nice to have your kids in an area where it’s diverse and they can see other cultures.”
“It’s a symbol of unity for our community,” says Annie Chua-Frith, who led the group behind the naming of the first Filipino park in Edmonton.
The Meadows started welcoming residents in the late 1980s. Larkspur was the first neighbourhood. Aster is the newest and still under construction. All seven of the area’s communities are named after flowers, plants and trees indigenous to Alberta. Not surprisingly, parks, trails and lakes are prominent features throughout, including the Fulton Marsh Constructed Marshland, home to mallard ducks, tiger salamanders, snowshoe hares and other wildlife; and the southern tip of Mill Creek Ravine, which starts in the community of Silver Berry. There’s also a five-kilometre path that runs down the length of The Meadows, connecting the communities of Silver Berry, Wild Rose, Larkspur and Laurel. “I walk there regularly and I know all the dogs that are walked there,” says Arnim Joop, who lives in Wild Rose with his wife, Susan. The path “leads to the Mill Creek Ravine and from there, you can walk all the way to the river valley.”
Susan describes The Meadows as “clean and peaceful.” One of her favourite neighbourhood spots? The Meadows Community Recreation Centre, which includes an aquatic centre, a fitness centre and indoor track, two ice rinks, a gymnasium with basketball, volleyball and badminton courts, as well as a branch of the Edmonton Public Library.
“They offer so many classes there,” she says. “I like to work out—do Zumba, cardio, H.I.I.T (High Intensity Interval Training). I go there four times a week.”
The Joops moved to The Meadows in 2001. Susan is from the Philippines. Arnim is from Germany. She’s a retired nurse, he’s the publisher of Mill Woods Mosaic, a community newspaper which includes stories about the different cultural groups in The Meadows and Mill Woods. The print edition used to be available in more than 250 locations in the area; it’s now an online publication.
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