Regent Park Central Park Master Plan
City of Toronto, Ontario

The Planning Partnership is leading the design for a new central park in Regent Park, Canada's oldest and largest public housing project. A plan for redevelopment will double the residential units in a mixed income, mixed tenure neighbourhood with a variety of housing types. As part of the park design process, The Planning Partnership designed a consultation program to engage Regent Park residents who come to Canada from all over the world, many of whom do not speak English as their first language. The park design is evolving through a series of workshops with activities that encourage participation.

 

Through the broader Regent Park planning process, community animators (residents who were trained to help with the consultation) were used to communicate work-in-progress. At the park's design workshops, translators presented information in the primary languages of the residents in attendance. At the first workshop, small groups of residents worked on activities such as cutting and pasting photographs of their ideal park facilities and components. At the second workshop, when the park options were presented, residents worked in small groups and were asked to cut and paste components of their preferred park concept options. The consultation program has also included presentations to special community groups, distribution of workbooks to collect information on resident’s preferences, distribution of newsletters, and posting work in progress on the web.