Citing concerns about late-night trespassers, Mayor Rob Ford and his wife, Renata, have asked the regional conservation authority to sell them a slice of the park they live beside so they can build a fence around their house.
“Our primary concern is the safety of Douglas and Stephanie, our two young children, having a secure area to play. The addition of this parcel of land to our property would allow us to install a better security fence that will help to enhance the safety of our children,” the Fords wrote in a joint Friday letter to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s executive committee.
The request is unusual. Anyone can ask the TRCA to sell land, but only one or two residents per year do so, says director of finance and business services James Dillane.
The property, located in the Humber River valley but not in its flood plain, is about 2,800 square feet — 56 feet by 50 feet. While the Fords referred to it as “a vacant parcel of land” in the letter, Dillane said it is actually a sliver of parkland that includes mature trees and is managed by the city’s parks department.
“James Gardens, a City of Toronto park, backs onto our property. Edenbridge Centre, the city-operated recreation facility, is also next to our home. We have a number of safety concerns, as we have encountered youth encroaching on our property late at night on a number of occasions,” the Fords wrote in the letter.
“Our primary concern is the safety of Douglas and Stephanie, our two young children, having a secure area to play. The addition of this parcel of land to our property would allow us to install a better security fence that will help to enhance the safety of our children,” the Fords wrote in a joint Friday letter to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority’s executive committee.
The request is unusual. Anyone can ask the TRCA to sell land, but only one or two residents per year do so, says director of finance and business services James Dillane.
The property, located in the Humber River valley but not in its flood plain, is about 2,800 square feet — 56 feet by 50 feet. While the Fords referred to it as “a vacant parcel of land” in the letter, Dillane said it is actually a sliver of parkland that includes mature trees and is managed by the city’s parks department.
“James Gardens, a City of Toronto park, backs onto our property. Edenbridge Centre, the city-operated recreation facility, is also next to our home. We have a number of safety concerns, as we have encountered youth encroaching on our property late at night on a number of occasions,” the Fords wrote in the letter.