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Toronto: City council has set aside $2.4 million to study an ambitious proposal to build a 21-acre urban park atop a downtown rail corridor.
The 38-0 vote came after a four-hour debate which at times devolved into a heated battle between downtown and suburban councillors.
“It is a disaster in some parts of the city but yet we can try to find a billion or two billion or even three billion to build a brand new park for a lot of dogs that belong to the rich,” Ward 7 Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti said during the meeting. “I’ll cut you a deal. You tell me that our grass is going to be cut, that the needles will be picked up in our parks and our playgrounds and it is done every single day to the standards that we once had in North York and I will support this park and any other park.”
The proposed green space, dubbed Rail Deck Park, would be constructed on a deck that would be placed above rail tracks spanning from Bathurst Street to Blue Jays Way.
Due to the size and complexity of the project, the price tag would be considerable with one staff report estimating that it may cost in excess of $1.05 billion.
In voicing his objections to the park, Mammoliti said that residents in his ward “can’t even get the dog poop cleaned off their streets,” making it difficult for him to support such an ambitious proposal for the downtown core.
Mayor Tory, however, warned his colleagues against turning Rail Deck Park into a downtown versus the suburbs issue during an impassioned speech ahead of the vote.
“This is one city and we have to get over this habit of keeping score every single minute,” he said. “This isn’t any more a downtown project than the zoo is a Scarborough project.
Study to be done in coordination with parks master plan
Though Mammoliti said that he would have a hard time supporting Rail Deck Park, he eventually voted in favour of the study after council passed an amendment requiring that it be considered in coordination with a parks master plan that would examine the deficiencies in suburban parkland and identify “mechanisms” for getting new parks built elsewhere in Toronto.
Scarborough Agincourt Coun. Jim Karygiannis, who at one point accused the city of “depleting the suburbs to create a downtown legacy,” also ended up voting in favour of the study.
“This is another way in which the suburbs are being overlooked and the money is being sucked into downtown Toronto,” Karygiannis said during the debate.
Speaking with councillors earlier in the day, Ward 20 Coun. Joe Cressy, who represents the area where Rail Deck Park would be located, said the plan is one that will ultimately benefit all Torontonians.
“This would be a central park for all of Toronto; not just downtown but the city as a whole,” he said. “Do we want to be a city that thinks big and plans for the future? That is the type of city that we should be, that is the type of city we are ready to be and that’s what this park will help us do.”
Cressy said that the area around the proposed site of the park had 946 residents in 1996 and now has about 30,000, making Rail Deck Park a project that is long overdue.
Cressy also said that Rail Deck Park could be a destination park for tours and residents alike, similar to Millennium Park in Chicago and Central Park in New York City.
“I know it is a clever sound bite to say this is the suburbs vs downtown but it is anything but,” he said. “This is for all of Toronto. A strong downtown helps build a strong Toronto for everybody.”
Downtown population expected to double in next 25 years
City Planner Jennifer Keesmat told councilors on Wednesday that Toronto’s population has grown by 122,000 people in the downtown core over the last 15 years and is expected to double to 500,000 people within the next 25 years.
As a result, Keesmat said that it is vital that the city begins addressing the deficiency of parkland in the downtown core now.
“Despite the fact that there are a significant number of small parks in the downtown there isn’t a place to throw a baseball or a Frisbee. The large parks that are an important part of neighbourhoods just aren’t there,” she said.
Keesmat told councillors that the land identified as the potential site for Rail Deck Park is “truly the last continuous area” where green space “of this scale” could be built,
The consequences of not building the park, Keesmat said, could therefore be considerable.
“If this park is not built there will have to be serious discussions about whether (residential) projects continue to get approved,” she said.
Less than 50 acres of new downtown parkland developed in recent years
The population in downtown Toronto has exploded in recent years but city staff explained to council on Wednesday that only 48 acres of parks have been developed in the downtown core over the last decade.
“I don’t think we can not do this project if we want this city to be as livable, vibrant and spectacular as we all want it to be,” Scarborough Centre Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker said. “I am a suburban councilor but you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the health of this city depends on a vibrant downtown core.”
“Although I live in the suburbs and this park is in the downtown I think you have to ask the question is this good for Toronto and I think the answer is yes,” Scarborough-Rouge River Coun. Chin Lee added. “I hope that all of us can support this particular item.”
The air-rights to the tracks are currently owned by the Canadian National Railway Company so the city will have to purchase those rights or be granted permission by CN in order to add a deck to the track and develop the space above it.
