Adenieke Lewis-Gibbs looks into how the public is consulted on new park spaces in their cities, and how people react when they aren’t
Two springs ago in Ottawa, trees in Mooney’s Bay Park were cut down in preparation for a significant new build. A new playground—set to be Canada’s largest—would soon call Mooney’s Bay Park home.
According to an Ottawa Citizen article, Coun. Riley Brockington said he did not consult the public because he did not want to spoil the surprise or disappoint the community if the deal fell through.
However, while Brockington called the playground “a jewel in the city” in an Ottawa Citizen article, the project hasn’t been welcomed as warmly by the park’s neighbours and community members.
In a Facebook comment, Gail Hawthorne said, “What a shame. Destroying beautiful riverside greenspace … for some plastic slides and swings.” In another Facebook comment, user Liz Elton wrote that she was “shocked and disappointed” in both the councillor and Mayor Jim Watson. 
Is this lack of public consultation standard practice?
Mary-Margaret McMahon, city ward councillor for Beaches-East York, a Toronto neighbourhood, said she often consults the public in community matters. On city regulations such as permit parking, the councillor said she doesn’t need to consult them.
Coun. McMahon said she and the city council make “tens of thousands of decisions each year.” If the public doesn’t like it, she added, “they can vote differently in the next election, or they can run themselves.”
McMahon said she doesn’t know yet if the change will be implemented in the more than 1,600 parks in citywide in Toronto.
Alcohol and Cannabis in parks
In Beaches-East York, it’s not rare for residents to bring a few beers or a bottle of wine with them to their nearest park. It’s something that Coun.McMahon has seen all over the city. She said it’s also the reason why she’s pushing for “mobile beer gardens” and the legalization of drinking alcohol in parks across the city.
Mississauga, Ont. park planner Mark Howard is more focused on upgrading their parks to accessibility standards and accommodating ethnic and cultural interests. While one city councillor works closely with community associations, another has kept quiet about a massive park development. Toronto, a larger and older city, is trying to find ways to improve their parks. How? They’re asking the public.
“Sometimes ideas come from a group or a resident,” Coun. McMahon said. This idea came from a conference she went to in Minneapolis, Minn. Parks in Philadelphia, Pa., have been part of the Parks on Tap program since 2016.
Parks on Tap is annual “travelling beer garden” in Philadelphia that allows locals to enjoy a beer or two in city parks during the summer.
So far, McMahon said, the idea is “popular in the media and with residents.” According to McMahon, her ward has been wanting beer gardens for movie nights and farmers markets.
A public survey that circulated last year has gained interest and support for the idea. A walk through Toronto’s Trinity-Bellwoods Park, near Queen Street West and Shaw Street, would reveal how popular the now-illegal practice already is.
“People elected us because they trust us,” she said. As the chair of the city’s parks committee, McMahon oversees changes and proposals about parks.
With cannabis legalized in Canada as of Oct. 17, people will be lighting up in public parks. In Ontario, municipalities have the option of setting their own restrictions on where you can smoke cannabis. Ottawa is banning it in public parks–but people will be able to smoke it in parks run by the National Capital Commission.
With the province allowing cannabis-smoking almost anywhere tobacco is allowed, French exchange student Jeanne Demoule says she hopes Canada will take after France and legalize open alcohol in parks.
“I don’t understand why you shouldn’t drink alcohol or smoke weed in parks [in Canada]. It’s a good place to have fun with friends,” she said.
Parks Canada announced this week that people who use their camping grounds will be able to smoke cannabis while using their facilities.
Planning New Parks
In an email, Coun. David Chernushenko said, “In a dense urban ward, it is rare that we have the opportunity to create new parks.”
Instead, Chernushenko said, the City of Ottawa will refresh old parks. The park in Old Ottawa South, near Woodbine Place and Carlyle Avenue, used to be a Hydro Ottawa transformer site. The agency remediated the land and sold it to the City for $1 in 2015.
Downtown wards like the Capital ward are limited to sites like this due to “prohibitive” prices for land, said Chernushenko.
“The public is always consulted,” the councillor said about acquiring land, improving current parks, and designing new ones. The community often inputs with naming new parks, he said.
Some new land was added to Springhurst Park in Old Ottawa East, said Chernushenko. The park, next to the fire station at Fifth Avenue and O’Connor Street, awaits an official renaming and redesign this year.
In 2016, the Mississauga government spent five per cent—$4.9 million—of their budget on developing city parks. Most of this money comes from cash-in-lieu funds from developers, said Mark Howard, who works in park planning for the city.
Ontario’s Planning Act mandates that developers set five per cent of their lots to park land. If not, they must pay the local municipality. “They literally write a cheque,” Howard said.
Adapting to Changing Communities
“Mississauga’s a pretty young community,” he said, comparing the city to Toronto. Incorporated in 1974, most of Mississauga’s parks were built between 1980 and 2000, Howard said.
Many parks are now starting to wear out.
“You need to be conscious of your demographics,” Howard said. Fifteen years ago, there wasn’t much call for bathrooms. Now, in what Howard calls an “aging population,” it’s something the city should consider in its pre-planning process.
“We’d give everything to everyone if we could,” he added.
Howard says the city prioritizes ethnic demographics, accessibility requirements, and state of repair when spending money on parks. The north end of Mississauga has a big interest in sports such as cricket, tennis and badminton, which Howard attributes to area’s high South Asian population.
Is the public always consulted when the city wants to build a new park? Howard says the short answer is yes. The city holds statutory and supplemental meetings where the public can voice any ideas, thoughts, and concerns they have about the new build. The City of Mississauga also sends out notices to residents within 120 metres of the site.
“We bring in the public,” Howard said.
“We actively seek them out. If [community groups] don’t come forward, we go looking. Because, what we don’t want is we do all this work and somebody comes out later and says, ‘you never talked to us.’ We don’t want that. That means we didn’t do our job very well.”
Sometimes, Howard said, the city already knows what needs to go in parks. In one predominantly Sikh community in Mississauga, the city is working towards parks that can accommodate a sport called kabaddi, what he described as “the biggest rugby match you’ve ever seen.”
In the northeast corner of the city, a collaboration with Maple Leafs Sport Entertainment and the Toronto Raptors funded a new basketball court at Ridgeway. Howard said the city only collaborates to build things that are beneficial to the community.
Howard highlights public consideration and involvement every step along the planning process for parks. “You can’t plan without them. That’s just not right.”
A new park is opening in the city. The first public meeting was in May. Another meeting was held for Paul Coffey Park in late November.
Almost across the board, city workers recognize the public’s key role in community decision-making. McMahon, Chernushenko, and Howard all showed interest in including their municipalities in decisions that affect them.
Brockington’s tactic for the playground at Mooney’s Bay Park gained a lot of negative attention.
On public involvement in community decisions, Howard said Mississauga would never intentionally not go to the public first.
“That just doesn’t happen,” he said. “That’s the sort of thing that people get in a lot of trouble over.”
