Designing Toronto’s Parks: How Community Ideas Shape Toronto’s Park Planning Process

Abstract

Community engagement has become an important component of municipal park planning. Yet questions remain about whose ideas are represented and how public feedback is translated into physical park design. This research examines how community engagement practices are structured within Toronto’s parkland planning process and how citizens’ ideas influence policy and document analysis, semi-structured interviews with municipal planners and community organizers, and observation of participants in park planning engagements. This analysis focuses on Toronto’s Parkland Strategy and municipal and provincial planning policies and engagement summaries conducted over various years. The engagements showed that community ideas can influence park design. Still, their impact depends on who participates, how ideas are communicated and categorized, and whether they align with municipal policy and funding—technical requirements within existing planning priorities. The research argues that participation in Toronto’s parkland planning is meaningful but institutionally mediated, designed through a process of interpretation and translation rather than direct decision-making. More equitable outcomes therefore require accessible engagement, shared language, transparent feedback processes, and clear connections between community input and final design decisions.