Rail Deck Park (?, ?, ?)

[PinkLucy]

Indeed - and this is actually west of the MTCC lands, which have decking plans of its' own as well. The potential of all that cannot be overstated.

I am skeptical as to how something like this could be funded given the lack of development sites to pay for it - and this section of the rail corridor is far wider than the bit closer to Union.

AoD

Can't find out just who is paying for it, but there is this ...

 

[innsertnamehere]

For the record, Central Park is 843 acres.

yup, haha. I always underestimate the size of Central Park. Regardless, this would be a massive park for Toronto, probably the largest in the downtown core.


A key thing to remember is that the city has something like $300 million sitting in parks reserves from developments over the last decade - its a good chance a huge portion of the cost of this is going to come out of that. Its easy to forget that developments contribute to this pot every time one starts construction - and the fund rarely gets used beyond the odd park renovation. As far as I know it has almost never been used to actually purchase new parkland, that always happens through land dedication by developers or through using existing city owned lands. As for being city-wide, probably something like 80% of those funds come from the downtown.

 

[ChesterCopperpot]

Based on the cost of Millenium Park in Chicago of $33million an acre - puts the pricetag in the range of $700million

 

[rbt]

That's what I *thought*, but it's only the Barrie line that's proposed to have a stop there. It can play the support column role I suppose.

It's only the Barrie line for now. Metrolinx has proposed a station in that location for several different lines in the past (including a DRL stop)

I think it's safe to assume their long-term vision sees several lines stopping near that location as an alternative to Union.

 

[salsa]

yup, haha. I always underestimate the size of Central Park. Regardless, this would be a massive park for Toronto, probably the largest in the downtown core.

There was an interesting graphic that compares the size of Rail Deck Park to other Toronto parks. It's still quite huge even if it's not exactly Central Park.

 

[smably]

I'm as excited as anyone for this, but I gotta say I'm a little cynical about the lack of funding sources or even cost estimates. My gut says $700m might even be on the low side.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

I'm as excited as anyone for this, but I gotta say I'm a little cynical about the lack of funding sources or even cost estimates. My gut says $700m might even be on the low side.

Good to see them think big - we just needed to see more than just thinking. And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised it might cost 1B - though presumably some of the cost can get rolled into various infrastructure projects.

AoD

 

[AndreaPalladio]

Vaughan, paging Adam Vaughan. Time to go to work.

 

[WislaHD]

Just wow!

 

[WislaHD]

So do we have a timeframe for this park?

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

So do we have a timeframe for this park?

Staff report to Exec Committee in September. Guess that's when we will get some hint of the nitty gritty.

CityPlanTO ‏@CityPlanTO 5m5 minutes ago
Construction of decking for #RailDeckPark will be completed over time, a resource that grows with the increasing population of the City & DT

Looks like a phased approach, which is pretty expected.

AoD

 

[Tulse]

That is tremendous. It really could go a long way to making the waterfront more accessible from that part of the city. Now if they would just do that over the whole dang rail lands.

 

[smably]

Vaughn, paging Adam Vaughn. Time to go to work.

He was there, says @jpags on twitter: https://twitter.com/jpags/status/760881719595700224

MP Adam Vaughan, who was councillor for this area, pitching federal cooperation with city (but not specific funding for this park)

 

[ADRM]

A Planning spox essentially said that recommendations regarding funding sources and/or preliminary cost estimates may or may not come in the September report...

Tory also declined to hypothesize about timeframe, but noted construction might not begin during his next term (*aggressively sheds tears for multiple assertions contained in that statement*).

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

City of Toronto Backgrounder:

http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/c...nnel=84a7e03bb8d1e310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD

AoD