Rehabilitation of Rosedale’s Chorley Park has been put on hold, and although that may come with a cost, Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam said finding consensus and compromise will be the reward.
Rehabilitation of the park’s main trail and tree planting were to begin later this summer with some $1.1 million in the budget for the work. Wong-Tam said for many years the trail system on a ravine edge had been eroding and was becoming unsafe for use.
Combined with a large crop of invasive plant species taking over the native fauna and last year’s damaging ice storm, some 130 trees were removed this spring and were to be replaced with more than 300 native trees and shrubs.
However, following a special public meeting earlier in June to address opposition to rehabilitating the trail, Wong-Tam has put a halt to the project and will create a special working task force to help determine the new scope of the work there.
“There is a desire to keep talking,” she said.
“I am hoping that by halting the project we can come together for a community-crafted solution.”
Christopher Lowry, board member with the Moore Park Residents’ Association that covers the St. Clair Avenue-Mt. Pleasant Road area, said the key for his organization is that access to the trail is maintained for all users, including those in wheelchairs, the elderly or even parents with strollers. In response to some area residents’ concerns, he said an originally proposed three-metre width would be best trimmed to about two and a half metres and built of a permeable material other than the proposed asphalt as a compromise.
“The ecological restoration is exciting, but we’d rather take the time to work on a better plan,” he said.
“I think the outcome will be a win-win in the long run, so long as access is maintained for everyone.”
Wong-Tam said, due to the delays, the $1.1 million earmarked will now likely go to other high-priority city park projects for 2014, and a new tender will have to be solicited once plans are set for 2015.
“We may have to find new [financial] resources to complete this project for 2015. The city will lose money on this project, but it’s a complex issue and will take time,” she said.