Newmarket residents dream big about public park at Mulock property

'You can probably do one new outstanding thing, there's not a lot of land,' lead architect says

Newmarkettoday.ca
February 7, 2020
Kim Champion

Today, the history-drenched Mulock property sits empty over about seven city blocks at Yonge and Mulock in Newmarket, but a world of possibilities opened last night as its future as a year-round green space was imagined.

More than 100 people, mostly longtime residents and some of whom got their first peek at the 11.6-acre site last October during a town-hosted heritage picnic, took part in a facilitated workshop at Old Town Hall to share ideas about the future public park’s development.

Hands enthusiastically shot up in the air when asked by a facilitator if there was excitement about the Mulock property opening up to the public.

When asked to describe the space in one word, residents called out oasis, graceful, historic, stately, peaceful, majestic, urban, woodsy, and something to be preserved.

In the Town of Newmarket’s ongoing engagement around the redevelopment of the former estate that was once home to Sir William Mulock, the Feb. 5 event provided residents the chance to learn more about the land’s Indigenous significance, its historical relevance to Newmarket, and what may become.

After a welcome address by Mayor John Taylor, in which he noted all of council would not participate in the visioning exercise to encourage residents to let their imaginations run free, the workshop began with a smudging ceremony, led by Trina Moyan Bell, co-founder of First Nations consulting firm Bell & Bernard.

Taylor said the development of the Mulock property into a park is an important project for Newmarket.

The town purchased the property at the northwest corner of Yonge Street and Mulock Drive for $24 million in 2018, with ownership of the estate transferred to the town in October 2019.

A $300,000 contract to PLANT Architect has been awarded and the firm is leading the redevelopment of the property.

“I feel there’s a certain responsibility that comes with this for the whole community, and making sure we get this right for generations to come because it will be there for hundreds of years,” he said. “That’s why we’re putting so much time and energy into engaging and getting people’s feedback and ideas. ...We want to respect and cherish our heritage, but we don’t want to be frozen in time.”

Sir William Mulock, a lawyer, businessman, educator, farmer, politician, judge, and philanthropist, invited many of the century's leading figures to his Mulock Estate home and model farm. Read more about the historical property here.

Huddled around tables of eight to 10 and, led by a facilitator, residents discussed such things as uses for the outdoor space during winter and summer and ideas for the heritage home on the site.

Resident Tim Leslie, who lives with his wife and two children, 14 and 16, about a 5-minute walk west of the Mulock property, said the space is an “absolute gem”.

“What excites me the most about the property in the context of my children is being in nature, being active, and being social in a historical context that is second to none,” he said. “You can’t build what this property is, perhaps you could visually recreate it, but not with the authenticity and the depth of history that it has.”

Leslie is a fan of having a skating rink or skating trail on the property.

“If you look at the Tim Hortons Water Feature in the winter, that’s a magnet, it pulls families downtown. If anyone were to say what brings people downtown, is it the restaurants, yes, is it the ambiance, yes, but what keeps a community youthful is bringing families and youthfulness together and mixing it with healthy activity, and that's what that water feature does in the summer and the winter,” he said.

Not everyone agrees with building some sort of skating feature, however, as concerns were raised about maintaining it due to climate change, the potential added costs associated with having to cool it artificially, and whether such a natural oasis was the best fit for an ice rink.

“The only thing that concerns me is the parking and traffic impacts,” said Leslie. “From an urban planning point of view, that is the biggest challenge that the architects and the town will need to get right. Because if people can get there and use it, they will. But they’ll never hear the end of it from people that are not within walking distance.”

“There’s three categories of people. People who can walk within 15 minutes, people who can bike there within 20 minutes, and people who can only get there by car, or transit,” he said. “And if they can’t there by transit or car they’re not going to use it, and they’re not going to enjoy paying taxes for something they can’t use.”

Another resident who lives on Jordanray Boulevard, that abuts the Mulock property, was concerned with her street turning into an ad-hoc parking lot during peak times at the park.

It was suggested the town may have to consider moving to on-street permit parking for residents only on streets near the property.

Meanwhile, ideas flowed about winter uses in the park that included fire pits, snowshoeing, warming huts, and skating. Summertime brought expanded options including a band shell, a meditation garden, public art and cultural events, picnic areas, walking trails, special events and fine dining at the Mulock house.

Resident Faye Longhurst is particularly enthusiastic about the potential of the heritage home to generate revenue for the town.

“I am so keen on this house, with all those big, beautiful rooms, I could just stay up all night thinking about it,” she said. “It’s a beautiful home and I don’t want to see it going to waste as just a cafe. The rooms are beautiful and it was a party house in the past. I think that should continue. If you rented it out for special events, I’m sure people would book it two years ahead, it would be booked every weekend, and evening during the week.”

“The revenue that we can bring in from that house will help to pay for all this,” Longhurst said. “I’m going to be really disappointed if the house isn’t utilized because it’s beautiful.”

Longhurst said she would prefer the grounds of the property be kept simple and natural, full of walking trails, trees and flowers.

The subject of access to the site and parking sparked much debate. It brought into sharp focus that the relative size of the property allowed for just one main feature and limited on-site parking.

“You can probably only do one thing here, there’s not a lot of land,” PLANT Architect partner Lisa Rapoport said. “You can do a lot in terms of programming, but you can do one new outstanding thing. So, you spend your money well and you don’t spread it thin.”

Community engagement firm PROCESS co-founder Sara Udow said that there should be 200 parking spots for the future park, but they all can’t be accommodated on the site.

There is a possibility that the town will seek an easement or lease of a portion of developer-owned land just north of the Mulock property on Yonge Street that could see 44 parking spaces, Udow said.

Other parking and transportation options are also being considered. Park visitors could leave their vehicles at the Ray Twinney Recreation Complex and hop aboard an autonomous, or driverless, shuttle, for example.

Agreements could be struck with businesses at Yonge and Mulock for parking spaces, and the nearby hydro corridor is on the table to be opened up to make connections from Ray Twinney to the park, Udow said.

“Things are changing, you don’t want to design for 50 years from now focused on parking,” Udow said. “Let’s think creatively where parking could go so people can access the site, but not destroy it with parking spaces. You don’t want to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Resident Wasim Jarrah agrees.

“In any design in terms of the future, it should be less reliant on cars,” said Jarrah. “We are looking into the future, and we’ve got Viva along Yonge Street now. I think, hopefully, the mentality of individuals will be to rely more on public transit to move around. Newmarket is not an area where people have to travel tens of kilometres to get to the park, it’s only a few kilometres away from most. We shouldn’t be paving paradise to accommodate the car.”

There’s still opportunities for residents to get involved and submit feedback and ideas about the Mulock property