The Green Alleys Movement has grown quickly since May 22, 2021. A green alleyway is a people-friendly space created by residents to promote social interaction among neighbours and friends.
The first true green alley, however, wasn’t developed until 1995, in the trendy and artistic Plateau-Mont-Royal borough. Numerous cities in the United States and Canada have been reclaiming alleyways from garbage and crime by greening the service lanes, or back ways, that run behind some houses. Eleven of the nineteen boroughs have at least one Green Alley Project sprouting up somewhere in Greater Montréal – developed with the help of engaged neighbours. . . . . . Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is loaded with alleys or laneways. These days some Torontonians are having houses built within their laneways. Maybe we can make them even more useful. Green Alleys anyone?
Toronto Savvy 
We have alleys near our home and apparently there is one zoned to go through our side yard. We just moved here. According to the neighbor though, if anyone wanted to put the alley in it would be over $30K to get it done. Now, each of the neighbors on all sides touching our yard have fences up. We figured we won’t ever put anything we don’t want to disappear on that strip of property just in case. I love the idea of neighbors actually knowing each other. That being said, one of my neighbors has a mouth on him and even when talking to the six year old, F-this and F-that, comes out of his mouth. It is awful. Other neighbors are super nice.
Could it happen here? A Montrealer tells me that in many cases their lanes are too narrow for modern vehicles so the neighbours take the initiative themselves. Here, with named, city-owned lanes, the approvals process would be horrific.