Cherry Beach trees ripe for the picking?

By Eric Morse –

A group of local activists called Save Cherry Beach is circulating a petition to stop the proposed partial redevelopment of an area of Cherry Beach on the southwest corner of Unwin Ave. and Regatta Rd.. The petition, to be found at the group’s website http://savecherrybeach.ca, asserts that much of the land is to be redeveloped by The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (TWRC) and Toronto Economic Development Corporation (TEDCO), basically for use as soccer fields in time for the June 2007 under-20 Soccer World Cup.

The group, whose aim is to preserve Cherry Beach as undeveloped parkland, dismiss the ‘temporary’ description of the soccer fields attached to them by TWRC and believe that this development will be the thin edge of the wedge for more commercial-residential development in the waterfront area by shifting developed recreational facility space into Cherry Beach – “basically a shell game”, spokesman Andrew Perk told the Bulletin.

The group asserts that despite generally sensitive planning by TWRC and TEDCO, the two organizations have underestimated the need for treed greenspace parkland in the waterfront area. ‘This space exists now along the waterfront south of Unwin Avenue,’ says the group’s website. ‘For some reason in spite of the published plans outlining different locations for the soccer fields, TWRC/TEDCO have decided to place these concrete and astroturf soccer fields and an additional parking lot right by Cherry Beach and in the process cutting down over 250 mature trees.’

According to Perk, the petition has collected more than 3,400 signatures. The group states that demolition and construction were to commence ‘at the end of November’ and notes that the next landmark will be the TWRC Board Meeting on December 20. However, as of December 13, no shovels had gone in the ground.

In response to the main points made by the petitioners, TWRC comments that:

• In its current condition, the area is not a natural wild area but a highly contaminated landfill (lead and PCBs). There is also oil from a former above-ground storage facility in the adjacent ground site owned by TEDCO and now proposed for the playing fields’ parking lot. TEDCO are now in process of winding up cleanup litigation with the former corporate owners of that portion of the site.
• The site is so contaminated that it can never be fully cleaned up, and current contamination levels exceed Ministry of the Environment standards for park or recreational use. However, over a span of years it can eventually be brought up to Ministry of Environment risk-management standards. The current proposal, conversion to soccer fields of artificial turf on a cap of concrete and clean soil will serve the purpose of a temporary and necessary control measure while plans for Lake Ontario Park, now a work-in-progress, are finalized, which according to TWRC will be a multi-year process.
• In the meantime the proposal provides for doubling the number of currently-existing trees on the site to about 800.

According to TWRC project manager Karen Pitre, the facility would have an anticipated lifespan of about 10 years, by which time the masterplan for Lake Ontario Park will be completed and hopefully building will have commenced. If by then the plan has a different program for this site (i.e. a picnic area or other use) then the field turf will be removed. At that time Commissioners’ Park would be built and there is provision for permanent fields in it.

The neighbourhood group asserts that the soccer facility construction plans devised by TWRC/TEDCO do not contribute to any form of environmental cleanup. The group also says that the plans for a soccer field and parking are a deviation from TWRC’s own existing waterfront plan.

TWRC contend that although many locations were considered, none were ever ‘cast in concrete’ although they may have appeared in evolving versions of the planning, and the Unwin/Regatta site was settled on because, in part, many other locations in the area are unsuitable for recreation due to the proximity of salt piles, trucks and similar industrial vestiges, whereas the current site is close to areas with existing compatible uses. It also has TTC and bike trail access. According to TWRC, developing the adjacent location as a parking lot brings it into the public domain whereas it is currently a fenced property with serious environmental issues.

Contacted by The Bulletin, Ward 30 Councillor Paula Fletcher expressed the view that the proposed soccer fields should be relocated to Trinity-Bellwoods or High Park (locations which happen to be in other wards). TWRC sources noted that those areas are comparatively well-served by high-grade active recreation facilities, while people in the south downtown area are badly under-served, that there is little scope for major sport and recreation development in the south downtown outside the Portlands, and they point to strong support from a sport and recreation community of over 30,000 summarized in a letter to Councillor Fletcher from the Toronto Central Sport and Social Club, which describes the situation with respect to sport and recreation facilities in Toronto generally as ‘dire’.