concrete_and_light
Active Member
You're correct. As opposed to an on-site dedicated park space, this is off-site dedicated park space.
Parks changed their focus in downtown just over a year ago from accepting cash-in-lieu. Wherever possible they now want actual park land.
I'm amused at this change just as the City contemplates a billion dollar park (rail deck), but I digress.
I'm not opposed to the change, except that I don't think it should necessarily be applied to get a small, free-standing sliver of a park.
There should be a focus on expansion of nearby parks whereever practical. Of course, by asking the developer to deliver the land, the developer can only go willing buyer/willing seller, unlike the City who could expropriate.
That may lead to what's practical for a developer to acquire, vs what best serves the City's needs.
Definitely see where you're coming from, but my perspective on this is a little different. I was excited to see where the park space would be. To me, it's a blessing that this results in two tiny storefronts remaining un-redevelopable into a tower. With so much of Yonge's fine-grained street level experience getting erased it's nice to have a couple that almost must stay.
But also the idea of that type of small, very urban park is quite interesting to me. Having the walls around it could be cool (could be imposing, but also maybe could be cool if done well) and creating that kind of permeability in a more intimate way than a street. We don't have a lot of that in Toronto and I definitely welcome more of it downtown.
I think I'd prefer more small parks more frequently than adding the same amount of land onto existing parks where the size increase might not be as noticeable relatively speaking.