Bill 108, whose regulations…

Bill 108, whose regulations are now under discussion, favours developers but damages residents of the City of Toronto. Given the present COVID-19 situation, which is to physically distance from each other by at least two metres, this is even more challenging. Unlike other cities around the world, we have no streets dedicated for walking at least two metres apart from each other. It is illegal to go into playgrounds, and the few paths are crowded at 2 m apart, especially towards evenings.

Goulding Park is now very busy in the summer. Not a summer day goes by when the density of people in that park is less than 100. On warm days the pool is full. What will happen when the population increases? Park space per capita is much lower in Willowdale than in many parts of Toronto. See the city report here: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/930a-Parkland-Strateg…
If you look at the maps, right now park space per capita in my area is from 0-4 m2 per person, and park space per capita is going down not up. If you look at total parkland percentage, we rank below many large American cites except Chicago (see Table 1, p. 9 in report here):https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/9645-parks-plan-2013-… Yet we continue to pave over existing green space and parks. Very local examples include Patricia Avenue behind Fisherville School, and McNicoll Public School areas. We need more green space in our area, not less. Ironically the people who move into those new homes also need green space.

Both Vaughan and Markham are proposing and building very dense developments just north of Steeles Avenue, with no new parks or community centres. Many of these people use our parks, pools, community centres and facilities. The development in Vaughan proposes three very tall towers:https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2018/09/three-towers-proposed-yonge-and-st… To my knowledge no new parks or community centres are planned there. Goulding Arena is also widely used by hockey players from around the region, ice time has been in short supply all 24 hours.

From the City of Toronto, we know that the implementation of this bill will result in millions of dollars of losses for city parks, recreation centres, community centres and daycares.