The City is improving the off-leash area in Barbara Hall Park. The new off-leash area will replace the existing one at the southwest corner of the park and will be similar in size.
Community engagement to help shape the design of the off-leash area was combined with the broader Barbara Hall Park Improvements project.
The timeline is subject to change.
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In this phase, the City worked with the community and the Barbara Hall Park Dog Park Association to define a renewed overall vision for Barbara Hall Park. Community engagement for the off-leash area was combined with engagement on the broader park improvements. A vision statement, drivers of change, guiding principles and big moves were developed with the community and stakeholders to guide the design options presented in Community Engagement Phase 2.
This section includes feedback related to both the broader park improvements and the off‑leash area, as the engagement process for both projects was combined.
A vision statement is a short description of the ideal future park. It inspires everyone toward a common understanding of the project’s overall goals. The vision for Barbara Hall Park is:
A revitalized Barbara Hall Park will be a place to gather, celebrate, and heal. It will be an inclusive and welcoming space that is the green focal point of the City’s 2SLGBTQ+ community in the Church-Wellesley Village. As home of the AIDS and Trans Memorials, the park will offer calm and quiet space for reflection and mourning of those lost, while also celebrating the history and resilience of the 2SLGBTQ+ community through heritage interpretation, art and culture. The park design will ensure it is a place where everyone in the surrounding community feels welcome and comfortable while centering needs of the most vulnerable. Barbara Hall Park will be a highly accessible, functional and cohesive space that is easy to program and is animated throughout the year with community-focused programming for people of all ages, ethnicities, abilities and incomes.
These are the opportunities and challenges driving the need for a change to the park’s design.
Barbara Hall Park has diverse users with varied needs. In many ways, the space is expected to be “everything to everyone”: a space for the everyday, while also being a place for reflection, mourning and celebration, and where people come to access the services of the 519 Community Centre. In the past, the park accommodated all of these uses quite well, but this has not been the case more recently. There is a lack of cohesion between the different park elements, and the park struggles to accommodate the huge number of users who visit during the annual Green Space Festival.
The park is the green heart of the Church-Wellesley Village – a highly prized oasis of green within the community that is also its central gathering place. The raised lawn, garden beds and canopy trees are all highly valued by nearby residents. However, the park lacks an appropriate range of seating, is not properly lit and the pathways are not wide enough to accommodate heavy use. The programmed spaces present maintenance challenges that the community would like improved. The park has a lack of flat surfaces which make it difficult to program.
As the home of two significant 2SLGBTQ+ memorials, the Toronto AIDS Memorial and the Trans Memorial, Barbara Hall Park is an important community space for grief, reflection and activism. There is a strong desire to maintain these memorials as places where people can grieve or reflect quietly. However, there is a feeling that these memorials are not properly or clearly identified or maintained and they are sometimes vandalized. In addition, the AIDS Memorial does not resonate strongly with HIV-positive youth, who feel it should also inspire hope and celebrate the lives of those people who are currently living with HIV.
The lack of clear sightlines throughout the park and the presence of dark corners present safety challenges and often attract undesirable activities, like drug use and drug dealing. Particular areas of the park, including the area to the south of the 519 and the northeast corner of the park, lack good lighting and/or programming and can feel particularly unsafe.
Guiding principles are high-level directions that reflect the community’s most important values and ideas for how the park should look and feel. They help guide how the park should be designed so that the vision statement can be achieved. The guiding principles for Barbara Hall Park are:
Big moves are the main priorities for the design of the park. They are specific directions to the design team that flow from the vision and principles and help to make them a reality. In no particular order, the big moves for Barbara Hall Park are:
Download the Community Engagement Phase 1 summary.
From April 17 to May 1, an online survey collected feedback from 580 respondents on the draft vision statement, guiding principles and big moves for the park.
On October 12, the project team met with the CAC to share the draft vision, guiding principles and big moves for review and feedback.
On May 15, the project team held a community workshop at the 519 Community Centre to develop a new vision for Barbara Hall Park. In addition to the local Councillor and project team, more than 40 community members participated in the workshop.
Download the May 15, 2023 workshop summary.
On May 9, the project team met with the CAC for the first time and were given an opportunity to meet one another, share why the park is important to them, and learn about the process.
From April 21 to May 7, an online thought exchange activity collected 341 thoughts and 7,926 ratings from 281 participants on the vision for the park improvements.
Review a summary of the May 2023 thought exchange activity results, including the top thoughts and themes.
In this phase, the City and the design consultant developed three design options for Barbara Hall Park. Community engagement for the off‑leash area was combined with engagement on the broader park improvements. Each design option included an 893 m² off‑leash area, and all options were presented together for community feedback. The input collected was then used to develop a preferred design for the off‑leash area.
This section includes feedback related to both the broader park improvements and the off‑leash area, as the engagement process for both projects was combined.
The off-leash area is at the southeast corner with a slightly adjusted shape for better circulation but the same size at 893 m2. A new small off-leash area for small dogs is added on the southwest side.
The off-leash area is kept the same size (893 m2) but is reshaped for better access and circulation, while the playground is slightly expanded and framed with structured planting to align with the park’s new formal layout.
The off-leash area is the same size (893 m2), but is reshaped for better access, with a small additional off-leash area on the southwest side.
From October 22 to November 12, an online survey collected feedback from 201 community members to help shape improvements to the park.
The results of the survey will be posted to this page.
On October 22, the project team held an open house at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to gather community feedback on three draft design options for the park improvements. Approximately 106 community members attended the event.
On September 23, the project team met with the CAC to review and gather feedback on three draft design options for the park improvements.
Download the CAC Meeting 4 summary
From August 19 to September 8, an online survey collected feedback from 326 community members to help shape improvements to the off-leash area in the park.
Download the survey summary report for the off-leash area.
On April 9, the project team met with the CAC to begin developing design options for Barbara Hall Park and to explore how to tell the story of the park and its significance to 2SLGBTQ+ communities in the new park design.
Download the CAC Meeting 3 summary
In this phase, the preferred design for the off-leash area was shared with the community and the Barbara Hall Park Dog Park Association on this page and with those subscribed to the project mailing list. The project will then move into the detailed design phase, where the design team will work through the technical details and plans for the construction contractor.
The preferred design was shaped through community and stakeholder feedback, including input from the Barbara Hall Park Dog Park Association.
On November 26, a meeting took place with the Barbara Hall Park Dog Park Association to review the preferred design and collect feedback.