Chances are you haven’t been to College Park recently, at least not since construction started on Aura. The city is getting $3 million from the developer to renovate College Park, but some say that’s not enough. In addition to the damage, the park is built over a parking garage!

From the Toronto Star / Patty Winsa

College Park has seen better days.

Litter pervades the muddy leftover water in the Barbara Anne Scott rink, named after Canada’s only Olympic Gold medalist in women’s singles.

The stucco on the once elegant skating pavilion is peeling away and small plants have sprung up in the building’s eaves troughs.

Throughout, the grass is trampled or the ground bare.

But while the city struggles with a $299 million backlog of repairs to Toronto parks, College Park is the lucky one getting a face lift.

The city is using $3 million in development fees from the builder of the Aura, Canada’s tallest condominium on the northwest corner at Yonge and Gerrard Sts., to redesign the space.

But even that amount may not be enough.

“It’s in need of almost everything,” says Netami Stuart, a landscape architect with the city’s parks and recreation department. “It’s pretty appalling.”

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