After the Toronto District School Board’s (TDSB) request to sever and redevelop the lot at the Bannockburn School near Avenue Road and Brooke Avenue was rejected by the City of Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment, local parents were relieved to know their neighbourhood green space was saved. However, the board appealed the decision at the eleventh hour, which has residents and local politicians alike buckling up for another fight.
The community first learned of the TDSB’s idea of severing the land in late 2013. The proposed plan was to retain one site and continue leasing the land to the Bannockburn School, a private Montessori School, and have the second site, which had been deemed surplus, redeveloped.
The community has expressed frustration regarding the appeal, having fought so hard to save the green space in the first place.
“We have three public entities — the board, the city and the province — all agreeing that this space should remain as parkland,” said area parent Trish McMahon. “Yet the same institutions appear incapable of working together to find a creative solution.”
Coun. Karen Stintz, who has been part of the push to save the green space from the process’s early stages, says the community will fire back with the same tenacity as before.
“This is an issue that touches communities right across the city,” said Stintz. “We all need to buckle up and save the space.”
But, she said, it is frustrating to have to go through the process again. “It is a tremendous misuse of resources,” said Stintz. “Everyone will be ‘lawyering up,’ spending money on consultants … instead, the board and the city should be working in partnership to figure out a better solution.”
For many, the most upsetting part of the process was the board’s choice to make the decision without consulting the community in advance.
“The law is very clear that they’re supposed to have a public consultation process,” said member of provincial parliament Mike Colle.
“They just can not do this type of serious sell-off and severance of open space without consulting the community and the public that is the main shareholder,” he said.
