Community fights to save Bannockburn school’s green space
Posted May 5, 2014 11:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It was a packed house at the Bannockburn school Monday night as neighbourhood residents gathered to discuss the fate of a two-acre green space.
The lot on Bannockburn Avenue is one of nine properties the TDSB is selling to raise $60 million for the school system.
For almost a century the green space has been a treasured play area for the community but the Toronto Lands Corp. is under the mandate to sever the green space and sell it.
On May 14 the TDSB is going to ask the city for permission to change the zoning so they can sell the land for possible development.
Residents are hoping the city will be able to intercept the TDSB deal so that the space doesn’t end up being sold off.
“Why waste the green space? Kids love to play here,” resident Neil Mendes said.
The park not only serves as playground for more than 100 students that go to Bannockburn School but it is widely used for local sports teams.
“On the weekends we do soccer here and I don’t think there’s a spare square…anywhere,” Charissa Levy, another area resident told CityNews.
TDSB trustee, Howard Goodman, who attended the meeting, said this community is not the only one
“The province requires us to sell $60 million a year of property and to do that we have to find property to sell and it affects every community that we sell in,” he explained.
There has been no word on the value of the land.
