The Toronto District School Board’s fight to sell off about two acres of green space near a North York school will finally reach the Ontario Municipal Board on Thursday.
The green space, which has been used as an unofficial park for several years, is part of a bigger piece of property that the school board has been leasing to Bannockburn School, located near Wilson Avenue and Avenue Road. The TDSB, which does not operate Bannockburn School, identified the green space as “surplus” land and submitted an application to the city to sever it off so it could be sold.
Community members, who have dubbed the space “Bannockburn Park,” were vocal in their opposition to the TDSB’s proposal and the North York committee of adjustment denied the school board’s application in May.
The school board has appealed the decision and the appeal will be heard at the OMB tomorrow.
Save Bannockburn’s Green Space, a non-profit organization formed by a group of concerned neighbourhood residents, has continued to push back against the school board’s plan and have even launched a website to provide information and updates about the case.
Patricia McMahon, chair of the Save Bannockburn’s Green Space committee, says that hundreds of neighbourhood children will be without a field to play recreational sports if the TDSB sells the land to developers.
“You are looking at 18 to 20 houses instead of two acres of playing field,” McMahon told CP24.com on Wednesday.
“You’ve got more than 600 kids who play soccer three seasons of the year. We’ve got a couple of hundred kids who play baseball basically every night during the spring and summer.”
Chris Bolton, the former chair of the TDSB board of trustees, previously told The Toronto Star that although the board understands a need for green space, it also needs money for capital investments.
McMahon said she is sympathetic to the financial needs of the school board.
“Nobody wants kids to be going to school in schools that have leaky roofs or have mold… but part of the problem is it is a balance of priorities,” she said.
“It is a shame to sell off green space in order to pay for repairs.”
At the OMB hearing, the group intends to argue that there is simply not enough green space in the neighbourhood to justify selling off the land and according to McMahon, incoming Ward 16 city councillor Christin Carmichael Greb and incoming school board trustee Jennifer Arp both support the group’s position.
The ward’s current school board trustee Howard Goodman did not respond to requests for comment.
“We are hopeful that the OMB will preserve the green space,” McMahon said.
“But we are not going to the OMB expecting that this is in any way an easy fight.”
