Revised downtown park plans to be revealed

Local residents will soon have a chance to catch a glimpse and have their say on revised designs for a long-stalled park that will green over a downtown parking lot.

A public meeting for the John Rebecca Park in the green space starved Beasley neighbourhood — a plan that has been in the works since at least 2010 — is being held Tuesday night.

Two key changes have been made to the proposed design for the two-acre park in the block bounded by John, Rebecca, Catharine and King William streets, that were not part of the plan that dates back to 2012, said Meghan Stewart, a landscape architect for the city.

One “big difference” is the possibility that Club SeventySeven, which is one of two properties on the block not already owned by the city, might contain cultural heritage aspects, she said. Because of this discovery made in January, the new blueprint for the park now includes the entire footprint of the club

building, which the original design did not, Stewart noted.

The property at 77 King William St. is on the city’s Inventory of Buildings of Architectural and/or Historical Interest. The city’s website shows the property dates back to 1850 and at one time was home to the E. and C. Gurney Co. foundry.

“Should the city ever acquire that property, we would have to do an assessment and then determine if the building or features of the building might need to be retained,” Stewart said.

If the city buys the property and some or all of it has to be kept due to heritage designation, the hope would be to open up the building or find a way to ensure it supplements programming and park space, she said.

The other property the city does not own is Lulu’s Shawarma at the corner of John and King William.

Stewart said the revised plan does not show a building standing at the current location of the restaurant.

The owners of Lulu’s told The Spectator last year that they weren’t sure what was going to happen to their business given the city’s plans to build a park in their location.

The other change to the plan is the park no longer needs to include a large commemorative space for emergency services workers because memorials have been installed elsewhere.

Despite the changes, Stewart said the previously agreed upon concept of the park — “creating an oasis downtown” — remains the same.

“We’ve really had to reorganize the site because of that large building footprint,” she said.

A $1-million charitable donation from the Patrick J. McNally Charitable Foundation spurred plans for the park to move forward. A lack of funding, a municipal reluctance to give up downtown parking and the Gore Park revitalization had previously stalled the effort.

After that donation was announced last month, downtown Coun. Jason Farr asked council to approve $1.5 million from city reserves that should allow park construction to start next year instead of 2021 or 2022, when the city had tentatively budgeted to find construction cash.

In 2016, residents on King William rallied to call for action on the park, including a suggestion to expropriate Club SeventySeven because of nearby violence.

Dale Mugford, who lives in the FilmWork Lofts and sits on their board of directors, has been vocal about the need to build the park and deal with perceived violence around the club, including the shooting death of doorman Vincent Lofaro.

Mugford and his wife Roslyn have raised money to create memorials for Lofaro as well as Ryan Milner of Grimsby, who was fatally stabbed in 2006 in a nearby parking lot after leaving a concert at the club.

In one week, they managed to collect more than $2,500 and will match those donations, said Mugford, noting he plans to share the news with the families of both men at Tuesday’s meeting.

“Pushing for this park to happen, most of the energy has just come from thinking about those families and thinking about if Vincent was my dad or my uncle or Ryan was my friend or my brother, how would I feel about all this?” he said.

“To me, it’s really important that they’re respected and remembered.”

Updated designs for the park will be available at http://bit.ly/ johnrebeccapark after Tuesday’s meeting.