Toronto Grand Avenue Park | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto

Well, it'd been a while since I'd been by, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the bulk of the park has been completed. You'll see shovels in the back of one of the shots where the second phase will be. Not sure how the Legion Road extension under the Lakeshore Corridor might impact that phase, whether they need it as a staging area in the time being…

Anyway, it all looks so much better, this area has needed this badly.

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This appears to the most recent reference to the Legion Road Extension here at UT; so I'll stick this here.

A last minute Member Motion is at Council on the subject of accepting (or not) lands to be conveyed to the City for the purpose of building same.


From the above:

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So that passed, without amendments, so I suppose the City is going to go forward with the land transfer and present a bill for site remediation.

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I wish I'd shot the park during the summer, but… I didn't. Here it is looking a little more complete than when I got it in March, though;

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Very interesting, thank you for the info. Strange to see the banks of the river so barren, I guess they were still empty from Gardiner construction not too many years prior?
 
jmi22 said:
Very interesting, thank you for the info. Strange to see the banks of the river so barren, I guess they were still empty from Gardiner construction not too many years prior?
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For decades, the lands around Mimico Creek were planned to be transformed into parklands with multi-use trails, not 1 but 4 bridges across the creek to create the badly-needed pedestrian connections between HBS, Mimico and Mystic Pointe. In addition, Legion Road extension was going to be built; land behind Beyond The Sea condos was going to be turned into a water treatment pond. The plans were grand, the planning process was slow as always. They even hired AECOM in 2016 to start the work. And then they put a pause on the whole thing in 2017 to see what is happening with the Christie's site and the new Park Lawn GO station.

You can read the details here:

Here's the new 'masterplan':
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From what I gather, the only thing that remains of the old plan is the Legion Road extension. No more multi-use trail going along Mimico Creek all the way up to Queensway. No more bridges across the creek. No more pedestrian connections. No more Bonar Creek water management pond... 🤷‍♂️
 
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Full Metal Junkie said:
For decades, the lands around Mimico Creek were planned to be transformed into parklands with multi-use trails, not 1 but 4 bridges across the creek to create the badly-needed pedestrian connections between HBS, Mimico and Mystic Pointe. In addition, Legion Road extension was going to be built; land behind Beyond The Sea condos was going to be turned into a water treatment pond. The plans were grand, the planning process was slow as always. They even hired AECOM in 2016 to start the work. And then they put a pause on the whole thing in 2017 to see what is happening with the Christie's site and the new Park Lawn GO station.



From what I gather, the only thing that remains of the old plan is the Legion Road extension. No more multi-use trail going along Mimico Creek all the way up to Queensway. No more bridges across the creek. No more pedestrian connections. No more Bonar Creek water management pond... 🤷‍♂️
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That is incredibly disappointing, especially considering a fully realized Mimico creek trail would provide for a direct off street Cycling/Pedestrian route between Islington City Centre and Humber Bay Shores. At the moment one must either face death on the Queensway + Islington/Park Lawn or spend an hour and a half meandering through the local streets, where drivers are still dangerously speeding of course.
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If we were really motivated, the Mimico trail could connect to a rail trail running along the south side of the CP corridor, the ROW would simply requiring slimming down a few parking lots that currently front onto the tracks. Would really improve direct ped/bike access in an area so divided by roads and rails.
 
Towered said:
I wish there were a way to get this on the city's radar as a priority.
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This seems like something Morley would be sympathetic too, though I honestly doubt she would push through the central section seeing as it would likely mean some very wealthy people lose their exclusive ravine access.
 
jmi22 said:
This seems like something Morley would be sympathetic too, though I honestly doubt she would push through the central section seeing as it would likely mean some very wealthy people lose their exclusive ravine access.
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The Mimico Creek trail would be a great thing to have… but quite an expensive trail to build for three reasons.

1) Getting under the Gardiner, Lakeshore Rail Corridor, and The Queensway will require a combination of bridges and new concrete embankments threading through the tight area.

2) Getting north of The Queenway to Berry Road will require 4 bridges across the creek, as prohibitive embankments switch from side to side as the creek meanders through the valley.

3) North of Berry Road, you start having to look at some expropriations (as well as 4 more bridges before you reach Reid Manor Road, where there's a pedestrian bridge that crosses the creek to Royal York Road.

Beyond Royal York Road, it would really end up having to be signed along either Thompson Avenue on the east side of the creek, or Leland Avenue and connected streets on the west side. The valley is very tight through here until north of Van Dusen, and there are sections where homeowners on both sides own all the way to the centre of the creek. I'd be very surprised on anyone having the appetite to expropriate sections of back yards for that. Probably signing the trail along Thompson to Meadownvale, and then building a new trail starting from there north to Bloor, and getting under that street to connect up with paths in Tom Riley Park on the north side would be the way to go.

Anyway, it should be bitten off in chunks, and I'd like to see them do a costing on the section from the Rail Corridor to The Queensway (or frankly, further north to Jeff Healey Park) first. That will be really expensive, and the City doesn't have a lot of cash to throw around, but the area needs it. The alternative of taking out one lane of traffic on Park Lawn under the Gardiner will make car drivers go apoplectic as that is already crazy busy through there, and is only going to get worse as 2150 Lake Shore gets built out.

Finally, to bring this back on topic re: Grand Avenue Park which is what this thread is about…

…yes, a connecting path should be built along the north side of the rail corridor over to the Mimico Creek Trail!

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interchange42 said:
and the City doesn't have a lot of cash to throw around, but the area needs it. The alternative of taking out one lane of traffic on Park Lawn under the Gardiner will make car drivers go apoplectic as that is already crazy busy through there, and is only going to get worse as 2150 Lake Shore gets built out.

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Well......there's a large amount of parkland acquisition money going unspent.........and many folks who work for the City are chaffing to put those funds to good use..........

But those who control them seem very reticent to let them go...

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Maintaining parks.....once you've built them..............or programming them.............ha, less than no funds........

But money can be found to make new parks happen if those controlling the purse strings can be persuaded to pull the......
 
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