A petition with 950 names was circulated calling for the lakeside pavilion as seen above to be halted.
A controversial plan to build a new pavilion at Humber Bay Park East is going ahead with more funds being sought for the lakefront complex.
A bid to obtain just under $500,000 more in funds to complete the project was approved by a General Government Committee and will go to City Council on February 6 to amend a purchase order issued to Baird Sampson Neuert Architects for the design of the new pavilion.
A petition by residents said the pavilion will now cost about $7 million to complete.
The additional funds are required to meet the City’s Green Standards for Net Zero Carbon Plan to all City-owned facilities that took effect after the funding was first agreed upon.
More funds are sought to complete the project which has been met with opposition by hundreds in the Humber Bay community.
“These current Council-approved requirements were not included in the original scope of work for design services,” according to a report. “The updated planning and design policies necessitated a substantial redesign of the building and associated work.”
The report by the General Government Committee said additional funding is required to cover the costs to address these changes.
The funding will come from a Parks, Forestry and Recreation’s Council-approved Capital Budget and 2024-2032 Capital Plan. It is not known when the pavilion will be completed.
More than 950 people signed a 2016 petition to halt work on the pavilion citing a number of reasons, including work on the ponds and destruction of existing structures.
“The community has consistently communicated that priority is to focus spending on the park itself – not development within the park,” according to the petition. “There was opposition to the pavilion at every public meeting and community consultation for the last five years.”
A petition against the pavilion states it will disturb natural habitats, area ponds and lead to an increase of crime since it is in a remote area.
The petition states the pavilion would have a capacity of about 40 people and permits would be required to use it. It claimed the pavilion would only benefit small percentage of park users and the $7 million cost and impact on the ponds is not justified.
“No programming is planned for the pavilion,” the petition said. “For now it is a building with no known use.”
It said the Humber Bay Park Master Plan remains unfunded and a survey conducted by the City confirmed that park users are more interested in outdoor experiences at the park than indoor ones.
“While the ponds and boardwalks do need maintenance, neglect does not justify or warrant their wholesale destruction and reconstruction,” according to the petition. “It is possible to aerate the ponds and improve water quality for a fraction of the cost in a more environmentally sensitive way.”
Many of the residents of the Humber Bay Shores area are against the project.
The petition said the community already has problems with late-night bonfires, fireworks and vandalism in the park as it is extremely private.
“The pavilion will not be visible from the street or parking lot, and cannot be accessed by police car, ambulance or fire truck,” the document stated. “Existing park buildings have been vandalized and even set on fire by a torched car.”