A new 3,900 m2 park, slightly smaller than a junior soccer field, is coming to 15 Wellesley St. E., at the intersection of Yonge Street and Wellesley Street East, directly across from the Wellesley subway station. The site is currently a parking lot, which will be closed when construction begins. The park’s design will be determined through community engagement.
The timeline is subject to change.
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This project has been classified as a Collaborate project based on the International Association of Public Participation Spectrum. This means we aim to partner with the public, stakeholders and rightsholders in each aspect of the design process, including the development of design options and the identification of a preferred design.
This project will have a Community Advisory Committee composed of community members and local stakeholder representatives. The Committee will provide feedback, guidance and advice to the project team at key points during the community engagement process, meeting at least once in each phase. Their role is strictly advisory, and they will not make decisions or represent the entire community.
The Committee will be formed through a modified civic lottery, which is a democratic best practice increasingly used in Canada and internationally to create representative advisory groups for government projects.
In this phase, the project team will collect feedback to develop a draft vision statement, guiding principles and big moves which will guide the development of design options in Community Engagement Phase 2.
The community engagement activities in this phase include:
The anticipated outcomes of this phase are a vision statement, guiding principles and big moves.
The vision is co-created with the community to describe the ideal future park. It is a big-picture statement that should inspire everyone toward a common understanding of the project’s overall goals and objectives.
The 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 to clarify the vision statement and guide how the park should be designed by describing the desired outcomes.
The big moves communicate the main priorities of both the community and the City for the design of the park. They are specific directions for how the physical design can achieve the vision and guiding principles.
In this phase, the project team will collect feedback on the design options from the community.
The community engagement activities anticipated in this phase include:
The anticipated outcome of this phase is the selection of a preferred design.
In this phase, the project team will share the preferred design with the community and collect feedback to help finalize the design.
Once the preferred design is confirmed, the project will move into the detailed design phase, where the design team will finalize the preferred design by working through the technical details and plans for the construction contractor.
The anticipated outcome of this phase is a refined preferred design.