TORONTO -- Plans to transform a large downtown parking lot into a public greenspace have finally received a stamp of approval from Toronto city council.
The final plan to turn the public space into a park at Spadina Avenue and Adelaide Street was approved at a virtual meeting on Wednesday.
Coun. Joe Cressy, who first brought forward the motion three years ago, said he’s pleased that the much-needed greenspace will finally come into fruition.
“Parkland is desperately needed. Residents of downtown Toronto know that parks aren't nice to have, their must haves. This is the most park deficient neighborhood in the entire city, which is why it was so important to secure this new park,” Cressy told CTV News Toronto on Wednesday.
“Today's city council voted to unanimously approve the plans in front of us and the expectation and the hope is that we will have this concrete parking lot turned into a new park within the next two years, if not sooner.”
The councillor said that teams would start the design plans for the promised 10,764 square feet park at 105 Spadina Avenue in January.
“The hard part was securing the land for the park. Now the fun part begins as we get to design it,” he said.
Toronto's King-Spadina area is one of North America’s fastest growing neighbourhoods. The neighborhood, which had 996 residents in 1996, now has more than 20,000 residents today, Cressy said.
The city owns the parking lot at the site. Cressy said staff worked with an adjacent developer to replace the parking spaces and move 70 of them underground.
He said that parks act as backyards for the great number of residents in downtown Toronto who live in condos and do not have access to their own greenspaces.
“COVID has demonstrated the importance of parks more so than ever before. As we are going to beat COVID, new park developments like this are going to be part of how we build back even better than before,” he said.
