The provincial government is using Ontario Place to turn on its ear Joni Mitchell's classic song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot.

Channelling Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi," Tourism Minister Michael Chan on Wednesday announced a new 7.5 acre free waterfront park would be built on the site of a parking lot that's been closed to the public for 40 years.

Chan said the new park, which will begin being built next year and be completed in time for the 2015 Pan American Games, is the first step in a lengthy revitalization of Ontario Place, the moribund provincial facility he shuttered 15 months ago.

A competition among landscape architects will be launched next month and a winning bid determined by fall, he said.

But Chan refused to say how much the new park would cost or even the budget for the initiative, saying he didn't want to tip the government's hand for bidders on the project.

"It will be a moderate park," he emphasized.

While they won't be paving paradise, Chan couldn't say whether Mitchell's dire vision of "a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot" would come to fruition on the rest of the massive Ontario Place site.

The minister reiterated that "there will be no casino," though there could be "some kind of residential development."

Chan said his government would follow the recommendations of last year's 55-page report by former Progressive Conservative leader John Tory that it commissioned last year.

Tory had called for "a new public backyard."

Condominiums on the west island, a hotel resort, corporate headquarters or educational facilities would cover no more than 15 per cent of the prime waterfront site, he said last year.

The rest would be devoted to parks, cafes, artist studios, splash pads and other attractions, such as a new Forum stage, Tory's report said.

"There will not be cement surrounding Ontario Place," stressed Chan, as he stood against an idyllic backdrop of the Toronto's majestic skyline.

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Overall, Ontario Place's rebirth is unlikely before 2017 .

"Today, we launch the first step," the minister said.