The city has agreed, by a vote of 43-1 (the one being Rob Ford) to buy 4 acres of designated surplus land adjacent to an Etobicoke Park on Lothian Road from the
Toronto District School Board to ensure local residents will continue to have access to the public green space.
"There's not a lot of four-acre sites in the heart of Etobicoke that are already city-owned and green," says the ward's councilor, Peter Milczyn, "so that's why I was so enthusiastic to retain this space as public property."
Whatever initial hesitance there was in acquiring the land -- and there was, according to Milczyn, years of negotiations behind this transaction -- stemmed from the $8-million price tag for land that, as far as taxpayers were concerned, was already theirs.
What finally sealed the deal was an agreement to revisit the purchase in three years to see if enough money had come into the city from nearby development through what's known as Section 37 to justify the purchase price. With units enough to house 5,000-7,000 people in the vicinity already in the works, Milczyn says he doesn't see it being a problem.
According to Milczyn, the space will likely have goal posts erected in the next year to make it more inviting as a soccer field.
Writer: Bert Archer
Source: Peter Milczyn
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