News   Jul 12, 2024
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News   Jul 12, 2024
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News   Jul 12, 2024
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Rail Deck Park (?, ?, ?)

Bah. I know the Rail Deck was always pretty pie in the sky, but it would be so Toronto to dream on a giant downtown park and end up with condos and a parklette.
There is plenty of space to build over on the tracks on the east of the CIBC square in the future maybe
 
Wonder if the City of Toronto can "expropriate" the land for the rail deck park? Could end up being tied up in the courts until after the next provincial election.

Sure they can. At "fair market value."
For downtown Toronto lands, officially designated for highrise develpoment, what do you figure all that land is worth? $100 million? $200 million? Just to get the land, before building the $1B+ park itself?

Since Tory asked all these people whether they want buildings or parks, he can now back to them with exactly how much their taxes will go up to pay for the thing they definitely wanted.
 
Hrmmn, not the worst thing in the world if it actually happens. Rail Deck Park while great, I wasn't sure if it would ever see the light of day.

Even with this decision, the build out is probably a couple decades and I wonder if it still happens at all. Will they have the potential ROI to build this?
 
An alternate view:


FWIW, I would much rather a rail deck park here, but I've no idea if Mayor Tory would have been able to make that happen.
These are two smart urbanist guys.

I think Meslin is correct - it's new parkland, it's an actual plan with actual $ behind it and actual land ownership.
In a perfect world, the City would have a blank slate, put aside land for parks and urbanize around it. In reality, the City is built, someone else owned the land and you're getting more than you're losing. Purely as a taxpayer, Torontonians are coming out ahead here.
 
This is a glorified walkway but not a park. Light years ahead of what it looks like now but a real opportunity missed. I am curious however, this is just the planning dept isn't it? Seems Tory is against it and doesn't it have to pass City Hall before approved?

Also this only goes to BJ Way so what are the City's plans for the remaining rail corridor from BJ Way to Union and even east of Union to Sherbourne for that matter?
 
This is a glorified walkway but not a park. Light years ahead of what it looks like now but a real opportunity missed. I am curious however, this is just the planning dept isn't it? Seems Tory is against it and doesn't it have to pass City Hall before approved?

The City refused it and went with their park plan.
The decision was appealed to the LPAT.
The City lost (and big, apparently, though I have to to see the ruling).
So, that's the end of that, subject to the details they can still negotiate through the site plan process etc. There's room to improve things but the big decision points for the City are now done.
 
The City refused it and went with their park plan.
The decision was appealed to the LPAT.
The City lost (and big, apparently, though I have to to see the ruling).
So, that's the end of that, subject to the details they can still negotiate through the site plan process etc. There's room to improve things but the big decision points for the City are now done.
Thanks for the info.

So now that this is basically just a development { admittedly with a decent greenspace and public realm} who is going to foot the bill and what is the timeframe?
 

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