Sorauren Avenue Park

Sorauren Avenue Park is a park in the Roncesvalles neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. A reclaimed brown field site, it was created after the local community objected to City of Toronto plans to convert a former bus garage into a facility for storing City vehicles. The park opened in 1995 and now hosts several sporting fields, a farmer's market and a fieldhouse for community gatherings.HistoryThe location was first cleared in the 1800s for a farm. After the building of bordering rail lines, the site became a desirable location for industrial uses. Among these was a linseed oil factory as well as a factory for Dominion Bridge Company property at 289 Sorauren Avenue. The Toronto Transit Commission took over the factory and converted it into a bus garage on the site in the 1947, and used it until the 1960s, after which it became a repair and maintenance facility. The TTC stopped using the facility and it was contracted out for soundstage use for television series (one specific example being Captain Power). In the 1980s the City was planning to use the site to store trucks and other vehicles of its public works division. The community, notably local schools, rallied to cancel the plan and convert the site to open space, of which there was a lack in the area. City Council endorsed the plan to convert the bus garage site, clean it of toxins and build a park. The park construction did not remove the concrete floor of the bus garage; instead it was filled over with soil. The park cost $700,000 and was officially opened on September 17, 1995 by mayor Barbara Hall and councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski.