2010-06-17 Agenda - Parks and Environment Committee

Parks and Environment Committee

Councillor Paula Fletcher (Chair)

Councillor Raymond Cho (Vice Chair Environment)

Councillor Ron Moeser

Councillor Frances Nunziata

Councillor Karen Stintz (Vice Chair Parks)

Councillor Michael Walker

Members of Council and Staff: Please keep this agenda and the accompanying material until the City Council meeting dealing with these matters has ended. The City Clerk’s Office will not provide additional copies.

Special Assistance for Members of the Public: City staff can arrange for special assistance with some advance notice. If you need special assistance, please call 416-392-6662, TTY 416-338-0889 or e-mail pec@toronto.ca.

Closed Meeting Requirements: If the Parks and Environment Committee wants to meet in closed session (privately), a member of the Committee must make a motion to do so and give the reason why the Committee has to meet privately. (City of Toronto Act, 2006)

Notice to people writing or making presentations to the Parks and Environment Committee: The City of Toronto Act, 2006 and the City of Toronto Municipal Code authorize the City of Toronto to collect any personal information in your communication or presentation to City Council or its committees.

The City collects this information to enable it to make informed decisions on the relevant issue(s). If you are submitting letters, faxes, e-mails, presentations or other communications to the City, you should be aware that your name and the fact that you communicated with the City will become part of the public record and will appear on the City’s website. The City will also make your communication and any personal information in it – such as your postal address, telephone number or e-mail address – available to the public, unless you expressly request the City to remove it.

The City videotapes committee and community council meetings. If you make a presentation to a committee or community council, the City will be videotaping you and City staff may make the video tapes available to the public.

If you want to learn more about why and how the City collects your information, write to the City Clerk's Office, City Hall, 100 Queen Street West, Toronto ON M5H 2N2 or by calling 416-397-7769.

Declarations of Interest under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act

Speakers/Presentations: A complete list will be distributed at the meeting

Confirmation of Minutes - May 21, 2010

Communications/Reports

Staff Presentation on "Every Tree Counts - A Portrait of Toronto's Urban Forest"

(No Written Material)

The General Manager of Parks, Forestry and Recreation recommends that:

1. upon its legislation by the Government of Ontario, Parks, Forestry and Recreation staff review the Built Environment Standard and determine the applicable components of the standard that apply to playground design.

The purpose of this report is to provide information on making existing City playgrounds fully accessible to the benefit of all.

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), 2005 requires the province to be accessible by 2025 through the development of five mandatory accessibility standards. One of the five standards to be developed, the Accessible Built Environment Standard, is expected to provide direction on new construction and extensive renovations.

Currently Parks, Forestry and Recreation (PF&R) has an inventory of over 850 playgrounds located in every park category city-wide and has limited resources to maintain these assets. Although PF&R is already incorporating a number of accessible initiatives for new playgrounds and renovations to existing ones, PF&R will finalize a strategy based on the financial impact of retrofitting current playgrounds and constructing new ones when the new standards are announced.

Financial impact, if any, to modify or replace current playgrounds will be determined once the Built Environment provincial legislation has been passed and by the results of any planned audits based on the new standard.

In order to develop an effective accessibility strategy, a playground accessibility audit will need to be completed by industry approved professionals to identify the baseline of the current inventory. It is anticipated that the audit results will determine that the cost to modify or replace the current playground inventory could be substantial.

The 2010 Capital Budget for Parks, Forestry and Recreation includes $5.281 million for playground renovation projects that will incorporate various accessible features, including $1.094 million for a fully accessible playground at Oriole Park. Furthermore, PF&R’s 2011-2019 Capital Plan includes $12.600 million in future playground renovation projects.

The Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer has reviewed this report and agrees with financial impact information.

This report provides a status update on a proposal to create a historical park in the lower Humber parklands.

Parks, Forestry and Recreation received a feasibility study, “Toronto Historical Park: A Shared Path,” in 2008. This report proposed developing a series of interpretive stations within the existing park and trail network between Dundas Street West to Lake Ontario. The interpretive stations would highlight key historical sites in the Humber such as Baby Point, Old Mill, the Rousseau trading post, and Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Seneca settlements. The feasibility study was reviewed by a steering committee comprised of staff from several City of Toronto divisions, Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Heritage Toronto and La Société d’Histoire de Toronto.

The steering committee is proposing that the two existing Discovery Walks in the Humber be redesigned with greater emphasis on the unique cultural and natural heritage of the Humber River. The Discovery Walks program is managed by Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and produces a series of self-guided interpretive walks through City of Toronto parkland and urban spaces (see Attachment A: Humber Historical Discovery Walk: Proposed Components). The steering committee also looked for opportunities to implement other components of the project through collaboration with existing programs, such as Urban Forestry’s community tree planting program, and civic improvements being undertaken by the Transportation Services and City Planning (Urban Design) Divisions.

There are no financial impacts resulting from the receipt of this report. Future financial implications may result from capital work required to implement project components.

As requested by the Parks and Environment Committee, at its meeting of May 21, 2010, this report provides further information on the cash-in-lieu of parkland payments received from 1998 to 2009 and their distribution amongst the various Parks, Forestry and Recreation Reserve Funds. The distribution of these payments into these accounts is in accordance with Council’s approved Cash-in-lieu of Parkland Allocation Policy that was adopted in July, 1999. Attachment 1 outlines the distribution of these funds in the various Parkland Acquisition Reserve Funds. Attachment 2 outlines the distribution of these funds in the Parks, Forestry and Recreation Development Reserve Funds.

There are no financial implications resulting from the adoption of this report.

The Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer has reviewed this report and agrees with the financial impact information.

Meeting No.	31	Contact	Dela Ting, Acting Administrator
Meeting Date	Thursday, June 17, 2010	Phone	416-397-7769
Start Time	9:30 AM	E-mail	pec@toronto.ca
Location	Committee Room 2, City Hall	Chair	Councillor Paula Fletcher