Time to get things moving again: that was the message Coun. Karen Stintz gave late last month, when she held a meeting to understand why there has been no progress on the Heart Park project, an initiative that was originally spearheaded by Post City Magazines, since last February.
Specifically, she said she was concerned that the site for the parkette —the old bus bay at the corner of Avenue Road and Otter Crescent — is still under TTC ownership.
“That’s what’s been the most frustrating part of the entire process,” said Stintz. “What should have been a simple transfer has become needlessly complicated.” Stintz said coming out of the meeting, she is cautiously optimistic that plans are again progressing and that the surplus land can soon be transferred, meaning in October the city will start demolishing the bus shelter and parkette planting will begin next spring.
Gary Short, the manager of planning and development for Toronto’s parks department, said the reason the project has been on hold is because a company was contracted to complete an environmental report on the site back in February, and the report needed to be returned before the city could purchase the surplus TTC land; the grounds need to be deemed safe before a transfer can occur. He said the report had just been returned to the city and that likely by mid-August, the transfer process will be finalized and sent to the province for approval.
Stintz said she was told about the final report during the meeting. “All that was revealed was that there was a high level of salt content on the land,” she said. While the level was unacceptable, adding new soil and replanting the park will reduce the salt concentration significantly.
Kit Kleiser, one of the local leaders of the Heart Park project, said she looks forward to the time when they can plant the new parkette, as the site is now a mass of weeds and has problems with graffiti: “We’ve been spending money getting graffiti off brick walls.… we’ve had people living there at night,” said Kleiser. “It’s not very desirable.”
