Keep it natural.
When all their voting dots were counted, that was the key advice local residents gave designers of a new city park planned for the quarry lands at Victoria Park Avenue and Gerrard Street East.
Making up roughly a quarter of the 19.7-acre site that Build Toronto plans to develop on the quarry lands’ western side, the unnamed park will be shaped like a ‘T’.
IMAGE: Build Toronto
One parcel, the base of the ‘T,’ will extend north from Gerrard and Coalport Drive. The other parcel is an east-west strip running parallel to the CN rail corridor.
Once part of a gravel and sand quarry in the 1940s and 1950s, the park land is now home to grassy fields, stands of sumac and sapling trees, plus a strip of mature trees beside the rail line.
“In my mind, the quarry lands is an example of natural regeneration,” says local resident Bernadette Warren, who recently surveyed the plants and animals in the quarry lands for an environmental science course.
“Nature has been working away, detoxifying that site for 50 years,” said Warren, noting that while the city pays millions to “green” other derelict areas, such as the Leslie Street Spit, the old quarry has done it for free.
“Honestly, on a summer night, you can’t hear yourself think for the birds,” she said at the meeting, to loud applause. “It’s incredible to be five minutes away from your house and feel like you’re in the middle of the country.”
Besides preserving some of the land’s natural state, others among the roughly 60 residents gathered at Malvern Collegiate suggested the new park include ice skating trails or a rink, night lighting, off-leash dog trails, or heritage signs.
To recognize the many Bangladeshi families in the area, one resident also suggested building a replica of the International Mother Language Day monument in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Plans for a farmers’ market or vegetable gardens left the residents split, with some concerned about attracting unwanted wildlife, such as raccoons.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson
Taking notes during the two-hour session were staff from Evergreen, a Toronto-based environmental charity called in to run the March 18 meeting and report the results back to Build Toronto, which will in turn advise the city’s parks division, which is responsible for the park’s final design and management.
Evergreen director Stewart Chisholm said since it was founded in 1991, the charity has become known for restoring asphalt-heavy school yards to a more natural state, and for turning the defunct Don Valley Brick Works into an environmental centre with its own farmers’ market and vegetable gardens.
Before residents broke into small groups to sketch park ideas on maps and charts, Chisholm and other Evergreen staff noted a few things they learned about restoring green space in Toronto – it’s important to preserve city heritage, even industrial heritage; to involve the community directly; and to look beyond “catalog” items like play structures and bread ovens to the sort of all-season, all-ages programs that make city parks thrive.
Southwest Scarborough Councillor Gary Crawford said his office wanted Evergreen in to lead the March 18 workshop because of its strong track record.
“From a planning perspective, we have a lot of parkland in our area, but we don’t have a lot of new parkland,” Crawford said.
“We have to make sure that we get it right.”
One thing Crawford said he would not talk about at the meeting is the long-standing plan by Gerrard-Clonmore Developments to build 1,452 apartments in a set of high-rise towers on the quarry lands’ eastern half.
“From my perspective, that’s not going to happen,” he said. “Tall towers will not be part of any conversation I’m having as we move forward on this property.”
Tim Weber is president of the Concerned Citizens of Quarry Lands Development, a residents’ group that has opposed the towers plan since 1972. Without going into detail, Weber said the CCQLD recently met with Jennifer Keesmaat, the city’s chief planner, to talk about what options remain to avoid the towers.
“We’ve got strong support at city hall,” Weber said. “It’s really nice to have the chief planner solidly in our corner.”
Given that Build Toronto is planning three-storey townhomes and four-storey apartments for its half of the quarry lands, Weber hopes Gerrard-Clonmore Developments will see low-rise is the way to go.
“I’m not an architect. I just know what doesn’t fit in our community,” he said, noting that Build Toronto’s low-rise residences and park plan, coupled with the three-storey townhouses Centreville Homes wants to build east of the site are giving him reason for optimism.
“This is all about leading the way, in part by example, and keeping high-rise towers out of the quarry lands,” he said.
PHOTO: Andrew Hudson
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It is too bad that only a quarter of the land is being preserved as a park. I think at least half would have been better, if not more.
The park should retain a lot of its wilderness and not just a “little” as proposed. As we have re-developed almost every green space in the City it is pushing the wildlife out and into places where it shouldn’t go. If it must become a modern park then keep it more natural. No monuments or statues to anyone or thing or parking lots. It should consist of just grass, trees, a playground for kids and a small enclosed off lease area for dogs.
I agree there is no need for high rises in this neighbourhood as they will just be turned into condos or luxury apartments. They would also increase vehicular traffic in the area which is not something that is wanted. I am also against “town houses” which is really another name for cheaply made over priced row housing. Instead bring back semi and fully detached homes that don’t look ugly.
A cultivated, landscaped park in no way compensates for loss of free-growing land. Toronto is full of parks. What is unique about the quarry lands is their natural un-tamed-ness. If Toronto loses them, it loses a little bit of soul.
I think leaving it and putting the money into the education system would benefit more. The public schools in the nahberhood are crap.
I have pictures of kestrels, groundhogs, snakes, Monarch Butterflies and wildflowers and crabapple trees on that plot. Garter snakes winter here deep underground below the frost in the dump. They are priceless food for kestrels. The land is still subsiding into the old uncontrolled landfill. It is best left alone to provide a home for homeless animals and birds. Scarborough needs this wild habitat. It’s part of a migration path for all sorts of animals. I love hearing the coyotes chirp when a pup gets away. The coyotes are keeping the raccoons under control. It’s nature’s park, not ours.