Toronto College Park Revitalization with Barbara Ann Scott Skate Trail | ?m | ?s | City of Toronto | RAW Design

This appears to be a POPS - Privately Owned Public Space.

The actual land underneath the park host the loading dock area for College Park, 777 Bay and Aura; thus the land seems to be Privately Owned by Canderel?

As Larissa Doherty mentions, the renovation of the park itself was via Section 37 Community Benefit funds from Aura (might be some Section 42 & 45 Parkland dedication funds too). Thus, the park would be just like any other public park (Public Space) in the City open to everyone. But the land the park sits on is privately owned,... if someone gets hurt in the Park, the City would be liable.

These POPS (Privately Owned Public Space) is one way for the City to dramatically increase the Public Space without having to acquire expensive properties! Important tool for high density urban area where land is expensive and park space rare. And the City is really having Development money (Section37 funds) pay for the park renovation,.... so it really doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything. Depending on how contract written, it’s usually City responsible for on-going maintence of Park.
 
I believe these paths you speak of are called ghost or dream trails. If you look at arial photos of Brasilia, you will see many worn paths in the grass, nowhere near the planned paths. In Canada all you need to do is go out in February and look for the path in the snow. It's the path of least resistance.
 
sunnyraytoronto said:
This appears to be a POPS - Privately Owned Public Space.

The actual land underneath the park host the loading dock area for College Park, 777 Bay and Aura; thus the land seems to be Privately Owned by Canderel?

As Larissa Doherty mentions, the renovation of the park itself was via Section 37 Community Benefit funds from Aura (might be some Section 42 & 45 Parkland dedication funds too). Thus, the park would be just like any other public park (Public Space) in the City open to everyone. But the land the park sits on is privately owned,... if someone gets hurt in the Park, the City would be liable.

These POPS (Privately Owned Public Space) is one way for the City to dramatically increase the Public Space without having to acquire expensive properties! Important tool for high density urban area where land is expensive and park space rare. And the City is really having Development money (Section37 funds) pay for the park renovation,.... so it really doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything. Depending on how contract written, it’s usually City responsible for on-going maintence of Park.
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Nothing suggests this is a POPS.
 
Today:

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Bayer said:
Nothing suggests this is a POPS.
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DSC said:
I am 99% sure its a City park, even if its on top of access ramps etc. The City does not pay to fix or maintain POPS
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The actual land is Privately Owned - it host loading dock facility for nearby buildings.

The developer (via residents’s Section37 Community Benefit contribution) paid for the construction/renovation of the new Public Space - this by definition is a POPS (Privately Owned Public Space). It’s just that this POPS becomes a City Park (with all the signage) and the City is responsible for maintenance (yes, we’ll see the large plastic blue recycle bin and black garbage bins here). This is the same set up that Gibson Park has in North York Centre; northwest of Yonge & ParkHomes/Empress where Menkes Gibson Square condo complex was built with a very long underground parking lot directly west of the condo towers, with a City Park on top.
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threa...138m-42s-menkes-rafael-bigauskas.4157/page-25

Back to downtown, right across the Yonge Street from this park,... earlier this year a building management placed noise emitting device to discourage certain Park users near their building. The land for that little City Park belong to the building REIT - City lease the land for Parkette space.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...wn-parkette-removed-following-complaints.html
https://globalnews.ca/news/3307582/...wn-toronto-parkette-removed-after-complaints/
 
You can also have strata transfers. Also see this report:

http://www.urbandb.com/document/res...y-hall-staff-report-2004-06-18-2004-06-18.pdf

Note 3:
The “City Park” referred to in this letter excludes, for all purposes, the portion of the Hayter Street road allowance that continues to be owned by the City. No GFA has been attributed to the Hayter Street Lands, as this land has never been owned by TCPL.
Note 4: By-law 438-86 z ones the block and the surrounding area (except for the City owned
park) CR T7.8 C2.0 R7.8. A small part of the block, along Yonge Street north of Gerrard Street West, is zoned CR T4.0 C4.0 R1.5. The City park was dedicated to the City by TCPL as part of the redevelopment and rezoning agreement. For the purposes of this exercise, the applicant has examined the block prior to any dedication of the City park, and has assumed that the entire block, except for the CR T4.0 C4.0 R1.5 area, would be zoned CR T7.8 C2.0 R7.8.

And the definition of POPS - from the city's UD Guidelines:

In order to provide this much needed open space within Toronto’s dense urban landscape, the City often negotiates with private developers to include Privately Owned Publicly-Accessible Spaces, or "POPS" for short, as part of the development application and review process. POPS are a specific type of open space which the public are invited to use, but remain privately owned and maintained.
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https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2014/pg/bgrd/backgroundfile-70177.pdf

College Park is a city park - it doesn't sound like it is a POPS to me.

AoD
 
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Yes, this is a City Park,.... the problem is it’s on Privately Owned land.

As the Global news article in my previous post shows, that little Park across Yonge Street is on land leased by the City but Privately Owned by the building REIT in question; who plans to redevelop that property and the City would lose that park.

When a City Park is on Publically Owned Land, that City Park will be there forever,... basically. I can’t recall a situation where the City sold Publically Owned Land hosting a City Park for redevelopment - it would be very politically unpopular.

Here, this City Park at College Park - which is on Privately Owned land - is likely on a long-term 99-year lease or something,... but once it expires,.... the property owner can redevelop it into something else. And that’s the main difference between City Park on Privately Owned land VS Public Owned land.
 
sunnyraytoronto said:
Yes, this is a City Park,.... the problem is it’s on Privately Owned land.

As the Global news article in my previous post shows, that little Park across Yonge Street is on land leased by the City but Privately Owned by the building REIT in question; who plans to redevelop that property and the City would lose that park.

When a City Park is on Publically Owned Land, that City Park will be there forever,... basically. I can’t recall a situation where the City sold Publically Owned Land hosting a City Park for redevelopment - it would be very politically unpopular.

Here, this City Park at College Park - which is on Privately Owned land - is likely on a long-term 99-year lease or something,... but once it expires,.... the property owner can redevelop it into something else. And that’s the main difference between City Park on Privately Owned land VS Public Owned land.
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What's the issue here? Barbara Ann Scott Park simply isn't POPS like you've originally asserted - a public park on (presumably) private land is still a different creature from a privately owned and managed open space that is publicly accessible. What is POPS is the corner sitting area right by the College Park complex.

AoD
 
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Yup, this is a City Park. The garage below is privately owned, but the space on top of it where the park was created once and is being created once again was transferred to the City back when the park was first built as a "strata"… long before there were any POPS in the City.

Owing to the upheaval created when the garage below needs new waterproofing (which means what's on top has to come off), the City now prefers the POPS model for such spaces. I believe the only recent exception that has been made to the new policy in several years now is for the park that will be built around Wellesley on the Park, some of which has garage underneath.

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What's the point of that bridge over the skate trail? Is it temporary for construction vehicles?
 
Tuscani01 said:
What's the point of that bridge over the skate trail? Is it temporary for construction vehicles?
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Yes, exactly. I hadn't expected them to keep it this long, but maybe it's simply been a case of no need to remove it yet.

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