The chair of a planned new Toronto “super park” says the project arrives at a critical time in the life of the Don Valley region.
Mayor John Tory and representatives of Evergreen Brick Works announced the Don Valley River Park project Tuesday morning at a press conference. The mayor said the project calls for improvements in infrastructure from the Brick Works to Lake Ontario. Private donors will contribute $3.5 million of the $5 million required to launch the project.
Andy Chisholm, chair of the Don River Valley Park project and key investor, believes the announcement has come at an important moment, when the region faces unique challenges.
“A very big part of this project is the ecological integrity of this space,” he told reporters. “If you look over there, there’s a salt dump and beyond that, a snow dump and if you look for the river … you can’t find it,”
In a press release issued Tuesday, Mayor Tory spoke optimistically about the proposed improvements the project can bring to the region.
“With the help of private donors, we will continue to make improvements to the lower Don Valley like new way-finding signage and entry points that will help residents access and navigate this park,” Tory said.
Chisholm further emphasized the importance of the correlation between green space and Toronto residents.
“There’s diverse socio-economic communities, all of which would like to access that land more significantly,” Chisholm said. “And (they) haven’t really been able to do so in the way that they should, given the importance of that land and the centrality of it in our city.”