Some conservation and natural heritage systems are considered parkland if they have programmable space, city says

The city is denying a claim by a Ward 4 council candidate that it has far less parkland than it says it has.

First-time candidate Matt Saunders says the city has between 25 percent and 40 percent less usable parkland than stated.

Saunders came to the conclusion after analyzing publicly available city data.

“A shortfall of up to 136 hectares was identified — enough missing parks to fill Stone Road Mall 10 times over, including all of the parking,” Saunders said.

He sent the information to local media and has posted it on his campaign web site under the heading "Where Are Our Missing Parks?"

Saunders says that the city-provided totals appear to be in line with targets, but the problem is that the city includes wetlands and other conservation parkland in its totals.

He says the city should have 446 hectares of parkland if the correct definitions are used, but actually only has 329.

“By counting large tracts of wetland and forest as parkland instead of conservation land, the city looks to be on track – but under our official plan, these natural areas are not considered parkland,” he said.

Saunders said the city’s parkland numbers also include future parks and private buildings.

Deputy CAO Colleen Clack responded to Saunders’ claim via email, saying the city has 442.36 hectares of parkland, based on a combination of GIS data, policy and definitions of parkland and outdoor recreation space.

“Interpreting parkland data and arriving at a total is not as simple as adding up hectares and dividing it by the population,” Clack said.

“We recognize that using the Official Plan identified park targets is creating confusion. The Official Plan is a forward-looking document and intended to guide future built form in the city. If we apply policy changes to our parkland inventory we put ourselves at significant risk of needing to change not only how we count parks, but how historically we use and maintain them,” Clack said.

She said the city uses a lot of variables in determining its amount of parkland.

Some conservation and natural heritage systems are considered to be part of the park inventory if they have programmable space used by the community, Clack said.

“After a careful review of the current inventory, acknowledging that many parks contain conservation or Natural Heritage System (NHS) areas, we determined that lands that are named as parks, have a clear and defined boundary and have a programmed use are part of the outdoor recreation infrastructure of this city and are therefore parks.

She cited Crane Park as conservation land included in the park inventory because the community uses it as an off-leash dog space.

Mitchell Woods Park is also conservation land, but it is not included in the parkland inventory totals because the public cannot use it as programmed, recreation space, Clack said.

Saunders also stated that his Ward 4 had “62 per cent of the parkland it should have.”

Clack said the city looks at the city’s parkland inventory as a whole, not by ward.