King Township to move forward with proposed new park in King City

Mayor says proposed East Humber Headwaters Park -- on the north side of King Road between Bathurst and Dufferin streets -- will be a new year priority

Yorkreigon.com
December 18, 2018
Sheila Wang

King Township is getting ready to help bring a new park to King City.

Mayor Steve Pellegrini says the proposed East Humber Headwaters Park -- on the north side of King Road between Bathurst and Dufferin streets -- is be one of his priorities for the new year.

“We would like it to happen,” Pellegrini said. “It’s now in the province’s hand to see if that’s something they’ll do.”

After a busy election year -- provincially and at municipal level -- Pellegrini says the new council is prepared to work with newly-elected King-Vaughan MPP Stephen Lecce to make headway on the project.

King township wants province to help facilitate new park in King City
Key parties involved plan to meet in January to discuss the creation of the project, according to Lecce.

“I continue to work with our mayor and the township to advance the East Humber Headwaters Park, which will further position King as a leader in conservation and as a steward of our natural spaces,” Lecce said in an email.

 The 511-acre vacant land sitting on the Oak Ridges Moraine is envisioned to be transformed into a park that will restore much of the landscape back to a natural state and provide a green space for public use.

Yorkregion.com reported on the proposal earlier this year -- which the mayor says has brought great awareness to this new project.

“When they saw the article in the newspaper, everybody was quite happy saying ‘Whoa, this would be great if it happened,’” he said.

York Region, the Toronto Region Conservation Area, the Concerned Citizens of King Township and Save the Oak Ridges Moraine have all lined up to support the proposed East Humber Headwaters Park from the beginning.

Howard Orfus, who purchased the land in the 1970s, had previously planned to develop it into a golf course and a subdivision before the Oak Ridges Moraine Act was implemented in 2001, according to Debbe Crandall, who works with Orfus as a consultant.

Since an application was made for the golf course before the Oak Ridge Moraine Act came into effect, the landowner still reserves the right to appeal, Crandall said.

She said Orfus has been open with the idea of swapping the property for a less ecologically sensitive development land elsewhere in the Greater Toronto Area.

“The land is in a natural linkage area. It is a really significant part of the Oak Ridges Moraine natural heritage system. It contains headwater areas to the East Humber River,” said Crandall, who is a longtime environmental activist.

Land swaps are not unheard of in York Region. Precedents have been set back in the 2000s when a number of developers were given provincial land in exchange for property on the Oak Ridges Moraine.

However, there are concerns.

“We just want to make sure that we’re responsible to the taxpayers,” said Greg Locke, former chair of Concerned Citizens of King Township (CCKT).

In support of the project, Locke warned of the possibility of "unjustly rewarding a speculator" through land swapping.

CCKT is a local citizen group focused on the environment and sustainable living, including preserving and protecting natural features, heritage and habitat.

“As a point of interest, we would love to see the land become a park. It would be wonderful large tract of land within King Township that would land itself very well in the very overdeveloped King City. People would almost have a central park next-door,” Locke said.