Rail Deck Park

Rail Deck Park is a proposed large urban park in Downtown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Announced on 3 August 2016, the park will be set on a constructed deck that encloses the active Railway Lands between Bathurst Street and Blue Jays Way, west of the Rogers Centre. In total, the park will span 8.5 hectares (21 acres) when constructed.^[1]

The plan was met with acclaim in local and national media, and was likened to other similar city rail yard redevelopment projects in North America, such as Millennium Park in Chicago and Hudson Yards in New York City.^[2][3]

Development

Background

The plan was first announced to the media in the CityPlace neighbourhood, south of the Railway Lands near Bathurst Street. The announcement was made by Toronto Mayor John Tory and Joe Cressy, city councillor representing the Trinity—Spadina ward who described the project as a legacy for the city.

Development of the park would require the City of Toronto to purchase air rights of the Railway Lands, which is currently owned by Canadian National Railway, Toronto Terminals Railway and Metrolinx. Costs or timeline of construction of the park were not divulged, but was preliminarily described by Tory to cost "tens of millions of dollars per acre".^[4]

Potential extension

Following the initial announcement of the proposed park, the Toronto Star suggested that Rail Deck Park could help revive plans for Oxford Place by Oxford Properties in 2013 to redevelop the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, located east of the proposed park, into public space. A potential eastward extension of Rail Deck Park to include Oxford Place could place the park among the largest rail deck parks in the world, with a total combined park area of nearly 10.5 hectares (25.5 acres).^[5]

See also

• The Bentway

References