It’s not just a new park for St. Thomas, it’s an active community hub that will provide a much-needed recreational space in the city’s core.
That was the promise back in June 2020 when Andrew Gunn and Maddie King of Andrew Gunn Consulting and young & free press unveiled plans for what would become Westlake-Evans Park.
On Tuesday of this week, the park was officially opened and it lived up to its billing of three years ago.
St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston praised the park as the result of “incredible collaborative efforts.”
The recreational and cultural hub is located in the city’s core, on the site of the former Colin McGregor Justice Building, giving residents another reason to come downtown, stressed Preston.
“Mostly, it used to be just shopping or services along Talbot Street. Some people came to city hall, and some people were coming to the library, but it was a quick trip in with their family and a quick trip out.
“Well now we’re seeing you’ve got other reasons to come, lock up your bike, go do your shopping, go into the library, play ping pong if you want, but it’s a great place to meet people downtown and we’re really seeing it’s turned into that pretty quickly.”
The new civic space connects St. Thomas Public Library with the recently opened Stationview YMCA Childcare Centre on St. Catharine Street.
Gunn, consultant for the Bushell Estate which donated $500,000 for the park, praised the transformation of a vacant space into a civic square.
“This is such an incredible transformation of a space in our downtown and when I look around, I see a lot of really contemporary elements, from ping pong tables to bike storage lockers and it’s such a wonderful way to connect St. Thomas Public Library with the new childcare centre and this whole space.”
The park includes playground equipment, musical instruments, bike storage lockers, ping-pong tables and green spaces.
Gunn noted seeing the park quickly becoming a destination is “very satisfying.”
He continued, “Once we saw the outdoor ping pong tables going in and the new playground equipment come in, all the families, the young kids have been using it and it’s very satisfying for everybody involved to see the park really come to life.”
Preston stressed the downtown park will “provide improved amenities for families and residents for years to come.”
Gunn adds there is one more major feature yet to be added.
“The window on the east exterior wall of the library will come out, and there will be a garage door-style window installed and behind that will be a baby grand piano.
“That will facilitate indoor and outdoor concerts here at the library and the new park and we think that is a really unique and innovative feature.”
As in real estate, it’s all about location and the vacant space proved natural for the civic park.
“We knew there were a lot of parents bringing children here (to the library),” observed Gunn, “so to have something to complement that made a lot of sense.
“When people come out of their doors, whether it’s their home or place of work, to have somewhere that feels warm and inviting and where people can gather is really important and I think now in St. Thomas we can look around and keep adding these pieces.”
And then when we learned the childcare centre had been proposed and planned for the space here to the east, that made it make even more sense to have a park here.
“It becomes a crossing where everybody is going to be walking through.”
We asked Gunn to elaborate on that.
“The building blocks were here, and it really was just adding something in between and this is current urban design thinking, this idea of a soft city, where it’s spaces in between buildings that are often neglected.
“When people come out of their doors, whether it’s their home or place of work, to have somewhere that feels warm and inviting and where people can gather is really important and I think now in St. Thomas we can look around and keep adding these pieces.”
He continued, “The more that I talk to people in St. Thomas, especially in the downtown, there is this obvious need for event spaces, for gathering spaces, whether those are large or small, all of them matter and we haven’t had enough of those.
“So this is something that is just so vibrant with the murals and really such an inviting space and it’s been a real joy for us to watch the community come together here.”
On that June day three years ago, library CEO Heather Robinson enthused, “But mostly, we’re excited about being able to be part of the animation of this space. This is what libraries do.
“We have been looking for outdoor space to be able to do programming . . . and just be able to connect with our community in a new way.
“We very much look forward to giving out the keys to the piano and also the ping-pong balls and the paddles. We are really looking forward to animating this space.”
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THE PRACTICALITY OF RAIL CONNECTIONS
A small parcel of vacant land this week is proving to be of huge significance to the city and Port Stanley Terminal Rail.
It’s a bit of a complicated story line so we’ll simplify it as much as possible.
The site in question is less than an acre in size at the north end of Station Street and is part of the CN railway lands (see map).
CN is proposing to sever the vacant lot – which used to be a railway structure since torn down – for future employment lands purposes.
An individual is interested in purchasing the property which has approximately nine metres of frontage on Station Street.
Now here is where a rather major complication sets in and so the map is critical for explanation.
The property in question is the checkerboard pattern bordering the railway tracks at the end of Station Street.
The extreme right side of the property encroaches on the former London & Port Stanley Railway corridor. You can vaguely see a vacant strip of land running north-south down the middle of the photograph.
Out of sight at the bottom of the photo is the end of the Port Stanley Terminal Rail tracks, just north of the replica station.
Back in the 1990s, CN was mandated to restore that piece of track to allow PSTR a connection to the outside world.
As is fairly typical of CN, they have ignored that order for decades.
“From a practical perspective, I would just remind the committee – you likely don’t need reminding in this case – but it is an active rail corridor and so the practicality of a north-south connection is extremely questionable.”
Should the land be sold, PSTR would potentially lose the ability to restore the connection.
Why is the connection important?
PSTR has envisioned running train service north to London in some form.
Further down the road, with the rapid growth of the city, the potential exists to run a commuter rail service linking St. Thomas to London.
Remember there is no public transit between the two cities.
A Committee of Adjustment meeting was held Thursday via Zoom to hear CN’s proposal.
Representing CN was Andrea Patterson, a land use planner with Dentons LLP based in Toronto.
According to its website, it is the world’s largest global law firm by the number of lawyers and the sixth largest law firm by revenue.
So you get the sense CN doesn’t fool around.
She indicated the land has been deemed surplus by CN “and is intended to be transferred to a private interest with potential for development at a later date.”
Patterson continued, “this application does not propose any imminent development, rather it maintains potential for development at some future date which would need to be in alignment with existing municipal rules and regulations at that time.”
There were two letters of objection and Dentons has responded concerning the issues raised.
Now to the heart of the matter.
Patterson noted, “much of the concern relates to maintaining north-west railway alignment London to Port Stanley . . . this issue falls under federal jurisdiction.
“From a practical perspective, I would just remind the committee – you likely don’t need reminding in this case – but it is an active rail corridor (the live CN tracks) and so the practicality of a north-south connection is extremely questionable.”
Completely ignoring the federal mandate that remains in place.
Or as a member of city council noted earlier this month, CN is a country unto itself.
Some years back, CN offered the city a larger parcel of land which included the property in question, however, it was a case of taking all of the land or none of it.
The city could not convince CN to solely deal with the smaller parcel of land.
The Committee of Adjustment on Thursday deferred the matter to a future date and we understand the city is now seeking to open discussions with CN regarding the Station Street property.
POPPY CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES
Thursday morning at Veterans Memorial Garden a poppy was pinned on St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston to officially launch this year’s Royal Canadian Legion poppy campaign.
Following the ceremony Preston noted, “If we can make a little bit of noise about the start of the poppy campaign then it really makes the lead-up to Remembrance Day even more significant.
“This is something that the Legion does as a fundraiser for them, but it is about Remembrance Day and us moving forward.
Preston paid tribute to the efforts of Royal Canadian Legion Lord Elgin Branch 41 and not just at this time of year.
“They are a great contributor to our city and when it’s not near Remembrance Day, forget the great work the Legion does and the good thing is they don’t.
“They carry on doing that great work with our Veterans and our community throughout the year.”
Poppy chairman Adrian Williams explained how the funds raised help the community.
“Our campaign is where we raise funds for our various charities that we support, many through our command structure.
“We support our local cadets, the Leave the Streets Behind program and one of the newer ones is the dog program where they have special training for dogs for the treatment of PTSD.”
The Legion’s nationwide homeless Veterans initiative, Leave the Streets Behind, began in Ontario Command. The goal of the initiative is to seek out homeless veterans and those who are in danger of becoming homeless and offer them upfront cash aid and assistance.
Williams wanted to stress one very important detail of the poppy campaign.
The poppies are not sold, they are available through donation. If an individual indicates they do not have money for a donation but would still like to proudly wear one, a poppy is made available to them.
THE ECHO CHAMBER
Following up on last week’s item on The Imagine Build at Oneida Nation of the Thames, Doug Tarry posted this sentiment on Linkedin.
“. . . it is such an important story. With no ability to get mortgages, lines of credit or loans, and such restrictive support by the federal government, the living conditions that our neighbours are enduring are simply deplorable.
This has to change. Again thank you.”
And Sally Crisp checked in from South Carolina with the following on Linkedin.
“I worked with Doug Tarry and he is absolutely an amazing man. Way to go Doug for helping your community. We need more people in this world like you.”
Here is a link to that story.
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