The redevelopment of Regent Park was first announced in Oct 2004. Here is the original plan (5.5 mb). To summarize:
- demolish almost all existing housing; retain the existing community centre, health centre, ice rink, and 3 churches [237 Sackville, 509 Dundas East, 17 Regent]. The Christian Resource Centre at 40 Oak Street would be rebuilt (worship, community space, supportive housing)
- re-introduce a network of public streets, and public parks
- increase the density by 2.4 times (from 2,083 to a maximum of 5,100 units),
- encourage private developers to construct housing for a mixture of income levels on the Regent Park site, and
- construct an additional public housing site somewhere in East Downtown.
In 2004, we were told the project would be built in 6 phases, each one to take approximately 2 years, starting Dec 2005. Hopefully there will be money for ongoing maintenance of these new buildings (since lack of maintenance was one of the main problems with the “original” Regent Park, and is the issue for almost all TCHC owned properties.)
Numerous changes since then:
- different sequencing of phases
- ever increasing building heights: the carefully planned 2004 rezoning was revised in 2009; “block 21″ doubled (from 22 to 40m), “block 22″ doubled (15 to 30m), “block 23″ increased (from 15 to 22m), “block 38″ doubled (from 10 to 20m).
- instead of reusing the community centre, it is to be torn down and rebuilt elsewhere
- the new pool is to occupy part of the “big park” (instead of locating the pool beside Lord Dufferin School, as originally planned)
- new arts centre
At one time, there was a dedicated, comprehensive website – www.regentparkplan.ca, and frequent newsletters – to keep everyone informed; not the case any more. This is the one link we’ve found that summarizes what information is officially available.
In 2004, our city leaders invested in a Toronto Indoor Pool Provision Strategy; the consultant’s final report offers 3 different options (scenarios); no indication on the city’s website which scenario was ultimately adopted. Also no indication whether the new Regent Park Aquatics Complex (or facilities planned for 2014 Pam Am Games) fit into this strategy (or is the strategy now “forgotten” ?)The city has been promising us a grand “Aquatics Complex” for several years; its original planned location was to be next to Lord Dufferin School.
When the city used “world-class aquatic centre” in its Dec 2009 announcement, most of us assumed that the Regent Park pool would be “olympic” size, i.e. 50m pool. The latest plans for Regent Park show a well designed, half-sized pool – only 25m in length – for swim training/lessons, and other aquatics areas for recreation (eg. waterslide), all wheelchair accessible. But does this warrant a separate building? Elsewhere in the city, pools are efficiently and economically incorporated into a multi-purpose community / recreation centre, so preplexing why not in Regent Park?
The latest plans say “expected construction start: summer 2010; expected opening: late 2011″.
See above diagram: This pool has been under design for a few years at least, but in this March 2010 version, the placement of pool building entrance seems weird. It’s very “grand” to have an expansive sidewalk leading from Dundas St, and handy to walk from the park to the pool doors, but if the building entrance was instead located off Sumach (ie. in the middle of building):
- no need for long interior hallway to access change rooms
- putting the entrance on a quieter street means cars can more safely stop to let off passengers
- front doors would be closer to service entrance (most delivery persons will have to check in at main entrance first, before making deliveries at loading dock)
We sent this suggestion to the city recently; we’ll post their response as soon as it is received.
The city is planning to rip down the existing community centre (203 Sackville Green) and spend $20 million for a new facility at the corner of Sackville + Shuter. Here are the tentative plans from the March 10 meeting.
There are 2 more opportunities to give your input to the designers:
- Design Options Meeting: Saturday, March 13, 2010 at 1:00 PM at the South Regent Park Community Centre
- Schematic Design Presentation: Wednesday April 7, 2010 at 7:00 PM at the South Regent Park Community Centre.
Ward 28 appears to be the “Wild East”, in terms of disregard for the city’s tree bylaw by a few residents, and lack of bylaw enforcement by the city. The city’s Private Tree By-law is intended to preserve significant trees on private property in the City of Toronto, to assist in sustaining the urban forest in the City. Trees are good for the environment; they represent one of the best ways to remove CO2 from the air.
The owner of 5 Wascana chopped down 4 trees on his property during the August long weekend. And 4 months later, only a block away, there is another chain saw and “cherry picker” in action: this time, at the rear of 508 Queen East. John runs “Pete’s Open Kitchen”; his son Sam cut down a 60 foot high, 100 years old, apparently very healthy tree this weekend (Nov 28-29). Toronto’s 311 service may be available to take complaints 7 / 24; our city politicians brag about lofty world goals of their Toronto Atmospheric Fund (“combat global climate change and improve air quality”), but apparently, even when alerted, city bylaw enforcement officers aren’t available to show up in time to save a local tree. Hey politicans: don’t bother making rules such as the Private Tree Bylaw, that you’re not willing to enforce! We urge local residents tell the owner of “Pete’s Open Kitchen” (508 Queen St E, Toronto, 416-363-0948) why you won’t be eating at his restaurant anymore.
As reported in the Star, Toronto’s ukelele players gather every week to play at the local Dominion Hotel.
” Better Ballots aims to explore options that deliver a better result when we go to the polls. Should there be term limits, municipal parties, or a “ranked ballot” where you place your first, second, third, fourth choice from among the candidates? Or other options? … Dave Meslin and a group of citizens are pushing an initiative to improve the way we elect our city councillors. ”
Send your ideas to Dave, check out www.whorunsthistown.to, and read the full article from the Sept 22 Toronto Star.
After a recent trip to the Home Hardware in Cabbagetown, I discovered out there is a separate tax in Ontario for pesticides!
Try searching the official provincial government website for “eco-fee” and I doubt that you’ll find any info about this fee. Similarly, this Ministry of the Environment webpage makes no mention of the “electronics tax”, introduced in April 2009. You have to do some more Internet sleuthing to come up with these websites
All of these “stewardship” websites contain the disclaimer “none of the fees collected will go to government; therefore it is not a tax.” Kinda difficult to follow their logic here: we pay tax for public services such as health care, garbage collection, water etc. But if the province decides to outsource the collection of used electronics (or tires), why is it no longer called a tax? Lucky us; we get to pay GST + PST on top of these fees.
Just how much ?
- fees for electronics
- the Municipal Hazardous or Special Waste (MHSW) program “fees” aren’t as easy to find
- No idea what the amount of the tire tax is; who cares. So far, bicycle tires aren’t taxed yet (at least, I don’t think so, but who really knows for sure, the mysterious “stewards” are in charge.)
The July 21 Toronto Star reprinted a chart showing the capacity of existing and planned temporary garbage dumps in Toronto. Throughout most of the city, dumps in parks are limited to paved areas (to limit leaching of nasty toxins into the ground). However, in Moss Park, the city plans to use every square foot of the park, if necessary (107 x 122 meters). Moss Park’s capacity for garbage is listed at 3,500 tonnes, substantially larger than any other site, and more than twice as large as the Sunnyside Park site. Dog walkers, soccer and baseball players who use Moss Park – speak up now (or suffer the health consequences in 6-12 months’ time. Bravo to Councillor Kyle Rae and Pam McConnell for protecting the interests of their constituents. Why doesn’t the city use the large paved area it owns at 100 Queen W, as a temporary downtown garbage site?
Councillor McConnell spent a full hour talking at last night’s Corktown meeting. She is a member of the city’s Labour Relations Committee, and so is involved in strike negotiations (although, according to today’s Toronto Star, that “committee hasn’t met since before the strike began June 22″). Pam McConnell said “any solution must be affordable”, and then followed up by defending the 2009 cost of living increase to City Councillors (but not to non-union staff), as “a good system”. Pam’s personal website has daily updates on the strike, including alternative children’s programmes.
As an update to the June 23 meeting, Pam mentioned there is money available for the proposed dog park on the Power – Richmond – Adelaide “triangle” of land, although Build Toronto now controls this land, and needs to be convinced this land is not develop-able for any other purpose. Pam assured residents that the Shuter-Sumach park will not revert to “dogs prohibited”, and explained the Parks Dept process for applying for “leash free status”. She was unsure whether this park would qualify, due to minimum size requirements, or inadequate distance separating dogs from childrens’ area.
The meeting finished with the usual complaints about negative impacts of homeless persons, drug dealing and prostitution; too bad that Corktown or Trefann residents’ associations aren’t sufficiently large enough or well organized to actually hold the Councillor and police accountable to ensure city programs such as Parks Ambassador, regular police foot and bike patrols, Streets to Homes, actually lead to sustained noticable improvements in our area.
Meeting attendance was typical: 8 board members, 4 guest speakers, maybe 1 member (and 5 non-members). Like most Corktown meetings, this one lacked an efficient chairperson. The first speaker droned on for 40 minutes about the Sept 29 marathon, when 5 minutes would have sufficed: there will be a “cheering section” at Parliament + Front, available for local residents, to cheer for marathon runners.
The 2009 picnic is planned for July 12 @ 1-3pm (raindate: July 19). As always, it is potluck; bring some delicious food.
