Mayor Tory says that work on an ambitious plan to build a 21-acre urban park atop a downtown rail corridor is moving along “very quickly” with a staff report expected to be completed by this fall.

Tory made the comment following a panel discussion at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where planning experts from around the world discussed the importance of urban parks. The panel included representatives from Millennium Park in Chicago and the High Line in New York, both of which have been touted as inspirations for Tory’s “Rail Deck Park” proposal.

That proposal, which is currently being studied by staff, calls for a park to be constructed on a deck that would be placed above rail tracks spanning from Bathurst Street to Blue Jays Way.

The estimated cost of the still-unfunded project is pegged at $1.05 billion.

“It is a very complex undertaking if you think about some of the questions that we are trying to answer, the technical aspects of actually covering over the rail yards, the legal complexities of it, the costing…” Tory said. “I am confident they (staff) are doing their work very quickly. There is a lot being done. I think you will be surprised at how far along this is when the report comes forward.”

In the fall, city council voted unanimously in favour of spending $2.4 million on preparing an implementation strategy for the eventual construction of Rail Deck Park.

That strategy, once tabled, will include engineering and structural assessments, preliminary cost estimates and will also provide information on potential funding sources, including community partnerships.

Speaking with reporters, Tory said that it will ultimately be up to the city and other levels of government to fund the construction of the park but he said he is hopeful that community partners will contribute to some programming and other activities that could take place.

Chicago’s Millennium Park, for example, was paid for with $270 million in city funds and another $205 million from private donors.

“I got a lot of advice from these people today about how to get the private sector and individual people involved in helping to pay for the special parts of the park,” Tory said. “We want it to be a very, very special park that is an attraction for everybody in the city and for tourists.”

As part of its continued effort to build Rail Deck Park, the city has launched a website to keep the public up to date on the project.