Downsview Park's enormous potential is being squandered

Toronto's Downsview Park has much to offer. So why is it being buried in citified sprawl?

Thestar.com
Aug. 21, 2017
By Christopher Hume

Downsview Park is not so much a failure as it is a non-starter. It has achieved a degree of popularity but never entered the popular imagination. Though accessible it remains largely invisible.

When the federal government launched an international design competition for Downsview Park back in 1999, hopes were high. And indeed, Canada's "first national urban park" became the object of global attention, attracting some of biggest names in landscape architecture from around the world.

The winning entry, announced a year later, was submitted by an all-star team comprising Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau and Oleson Worland. Called Tree City, it envisioned a "matrix of circular tree clusters covering 25 per cent of the site ... supplemented by meadows, playing fields and gardens."

It was soon forgotten and nearly two decades later, Downsview is still searching for its identity, unsure whether it's "Toronto's Central Park" (one of several in the city) or a leftover green space surrounded by suburban housing. The circular tree clusters never materialized, but there are large swaths of lawn, an orchard, a large pond as well as a repurposed industrial infrastructure and two subway stations. It offers everything from indoor soccer pitches and a squash club to flea markets and movie studios.

Most recently, it acquired a new subdivision, Stanley Greene, which, though unfinished, is already home to hundreds of residents. Not only are many unhappy, so are some of their neighbours from the area. They feel betrayed because the park they expected is being turned into housing.

Occupants of the homes tell stories of flooded basements, black mould, blocked pipes, garbage-strewn streets, wobbly railings, leaky walls and ceilings, warped floors, missed construction deadlines ... But when some of the garages turned out to be too shallow to accommodate a car, the spit hit the fan.

"Residents have been forced into car culture, but given no place to park their cars," declares local Councillor Maria Augimeri. "Shoddy doesn't come close to describing the situation. There are hazard issues. My office has had more than 500 complaints. Some residents are living in hotels because the city won't sign off on a certificate of completion."

The builder, Mattamy Homes - five-time winner of the Home Builder of the Year Award - says it's aware of the complaints about the garage doors and other things and is committed to addressing "both individual and community issues." The company says it's made significant progress in the past few months and is "looking forward to working co-operatively with the city" to find solutions.

David Anselmi, real estate director at Canada Lands Corporation, the federal agency that owns Downsview, insists "the majority of the feedback we have received has been positive. People are pleased that more families, younger families, are coming into the neighbourhood to live and enjoy the Park. It's bringing new life to the area."

Then there's the issue - more worrisome perhaps - of the planning of Stanley Greene. It comes right out of the suburban playbook. As Augimeri points out, "There's no butcher shop, no florist, no sense of community, no place to walk ... " Adding insult to injury, she says, not even the new subway station is within "walking distance."

In other words, nothing about Stanley Greene quite adds up. Though both the city and the Ontario Municipal Board are implicated, Ottawa bears ultimate responsibility for what's happened. The optimism of the original vision for Downsview has been overwhelmed by mismanagement and pressure to make the project pay for itself. Even more disturbing, Stanley Greene is only the first of five development residential schemes.

Meanwhile, on Milford Ave., not far from the mud and mould of Stanley Greene, an amazing transformation has taken place. A couple of years ago, a restaurant/butcher called Speducci unexpectedly appeared. Though its semi-industrial suburban surroundings are dreary and instantly forgettable, on a recent weekday afternoon, the place was bursting with happy customers chowing down on some of the best Italian cuisine in Toronto.

Clearly, Downsview deserves to be taken seriously. Clearly, its urban potential is enormous. So why is it being buried in citified sprawl? Who in the federal government, the Canada Lands Corporation, the OMB or Toronto didn't get the memo that Downsview is part of a city. A city! Not a subdivision in some generic suburb with a different area code.

While on one hand we're spending billions constructing subways to this part of Toronto and beyond, we allow developers to build the sort of housing that comes right out of a discredited past. One can't help but wonder what's the point of it all. Perhaps there isn't one.