Grant Faulkner Park is a new 5.4-acre park coming to 320 Markham Rd., just north of Eglinton Avenue East in the Scarborough-Guildwood neighbourhood. The park was officially named in November 2024 in honour of Grant Faulkner, who tragically died in 2015 while experiencing homelessness. The name not only commemorates his life but also serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting vulnerable individuals and addressing homelessness in the community.
The park’s design will be shaped through community engagement and guided by the Parks and Recreation Facilities Plan, which helps identify and address gaps in park amenities and ensures an equitable distribution of recreational facilities across the city.
While we aim to provide fully accessible content, there is no text alternative available for some of the content on this site. If you require alternate formats or need assistance understanding our maps, drawings, or any other content, please contact Neda Nassiri at 416-392-6388.
The timeline is subject to change and is pending the transfer of land from one City division to another.
Sign up for or unsubscribe from updates related to Grant Faulkner Park.
This project has been classified as a Consult project based on the International Association for Public Participation Spectrum. This means we obtain public feedback on the proposed amenities for the park and the playground equipment options.
In this phase, the City and its design consultant shared playground options for the new park to the community for feedback. This feedback will be used to develop a preferred playground design.
The anticipated outcome of this phase is the selection of a preferred playground design.
From east to west, the plan shows three proposed soccer fields and cricket batting cages on the east side close to Markham Road. A water bottle filler, garbage bins and bike racks are to the west, and further to the west is a playground area and parking lot.
Option A includes:
Option B includes:
Option C includes:
From June 2 to July 14, an online survey on three playground options for the new park received 114 responses.
Overall, 40 per cent of respondents preferred Option A, 30 per cent preferred Option B and 30 per cent preferred Option C.
Respondents were asked about the most important features to include in the new playground. The three most desired features were:
Respondents were asked about the least important features to include in the new playground. The three least desired features were:
Respondents were asked what features they would like more of. The three most desired features were:
21 per cent of respondents requested other features, including a wading pool or splash pad (three comments), climbing features for toddlers (three comments) and wheelchair accessible features (three comments).
55 per cent of respondents preferred wood chips, 31 per cent preferred rubber ground cover and 15 per cent had no preference.
Respondents preferred standard City benches (79 per cent) and picnic tables (73 per cent) to seatwalls (41 per cent).
46 per cent of respondents preferred bright colours for the playground, 36 per cent preferred earth tones and 18 per cent had no preference.
128 respondents provided additional comments. Top themes, with the total comments in parentheses, included:
On June 2, the project team hosted a pop-up event near the corner of Markham Road and Luella Street. 12 community members participated in providing feedback before the event was cancelled due to high winds. As a result, an additional pop-up took place on July 2 at Scarborough Village Recreation Centre with 50 community members. The results of the two pop-up events have been combined in the summary below.
Overall, 28 respondents preferred Playground Option A, five preferred Option B and seven preferred Option C.
Respondents were asked about the most important features to include in the new playground. Features with ten or more responses were:
The least important features to include in the new playground were play panels with 10 responses.
Respondents preferred rubber ground cover (25) and one respondent preferred wood chips.
Respondents preferred picnic tables (21) to benches (five) and seatwalls (three).
20 respondents preferred bright colours for the playground, while five preferred earth tones.
In this phase, the City will share the preferred park and playground design with the community and the subscribers on the project mailing list. The project will then move into the detail design phase, where the design team will finalize the preferred design by working through the technical details and developing detailed plans and drawings for the construction contractor.
The anticipated outcome of this phase is a refined preferred design.
Grant Faulkner Park is a new park located at 320 Markham Rd. The land was purchased by the City and is currently vacant with no park programming.
The following amenities are being proposed for this park based on the Parks and Recreation Facilities Plan: