We bought our first house in 1958. The company I worked for transferred me from Ottawa to Toronto to become a district engineer for building and maintaining service stations. The house was on Applefield Drive in Scarborough and we paid a premium price of $12,500 for the privilege of owning a property on the edge of a wooded ravine. A variety of wild animals showed up on our lawn from the ravine including rabbits, snakes, turtles, skunks, racoons and the occasional deer.
On visiting the municipal offices to obtain a building permit I asked to see the maps of the area. They included symbols indicating construction plans in the ravine. Since Reeve Campbell ( later the mayor of Toronto) had made a speech earlier that stated that the ravine would become a park I was surprised to see this and immediately wrote to the Planning Commissioner to inquire about it. His response was that they had rezoned the area from a park to a sewer easement because it would provide financing for property developments including an apartment to be built behind my house.. I wrote a letter back replacing the Reeve's words referring to a park and parkland with sewer and sewer easement. The replied in a letter stating that the township needed the money from selling some land.
To protest I organized a trip with my neighbours to the Ontario Planning Board. My protest obviously interfered with the judge's busy schedule for the day and he called for a coffee break claiming that our protest was heard. No decisions were taken so feeling depressed I spoke to Penny and Casson, one of my building contractors about this; He informed me that a group of crooked politicians were making a lot of money.through rezoning land.
Fortunately a well known Canadian author, Pierre Burton, had uncovered a similar scandal of corruption in North York that had filled the newspapers for weeks. I phoned the Planning Commissioner in Scarborough and informed him that I would be phoning Pierre Burton the following morning at 9AM . At 8AM Reeve Campbell and two associates arrived on my doorstep and informed me that they had held a snap meeting that same evening and decided to rezone the land to parkland again This would become the largest park in Metro Toronto. They even suggested that I would end up with a swimming pool (which never materialized).
This park is now called Thomson Park after the Thomson Family who settled in the area around 1830 but maybe it should have been named after Pierre Burton or possibly Don Currie who saved it from becoming a sewer easement. I never told Pierre Burton about this at the time but finally a few years later decided to tell him the full story, but sadly he had died a few months earlier.. .
On visiting the municipal offices to obtain a building permit I asked to see the maps of the area. They included symbols indicating construction plans in the ravine. Since Reeve Campbell ( later the mayor of Toronto) had made a speech earlier that stated that the ravine would become a park I was surprised to see this and immediately wrote to the Planning Commissioner to inquire about it. His response was that they had rezoned the area from a park to a sewer easement because it would provide financing for property developments including an apartment to be built behind my house.. I wrote a letter back replacing the Reeve's words referring to a park and parkland with sewer and sewer easement. The replied in a letter stating that the township needed the money from selling some land.
To protest I organized a trip with my neighbours to the Ontario Planning Board. My protest obviously interfered with the judge's busy schedule for the day and he called for a coffee break claiming that our protest was heard. No decisions were taken so feeling depressed I spoke to Penny and Casson, one of my building contractors about this; He informed me that a group of crooked politicians were making a lot of money.through rezoning land.
Fortunately a well known Canadian author, Pierre Burton, had uncovered a similar scandal of corruption in North York that had filled the newspapers for weeks. I phoned the Planning Commissioner in Scarborough and informed him that I would be phoning Pierre Burton the following morning at 9AM . At 8AM Reeve Campbell and two associates arrived on my doorstep and informed me that they had held a snap meeting that same evening and decided to rezone the land to parkland again This would become the largest park in Metro Toronto. They even suggested that I would end up with a swimming pool (which never materialized).
This park is now called Thomson Park after the Thomson Family who settled in the area around 1830 but maybe it should have been named after Pierre Burton or possibly Don Currie who saved it from becoming a sewer easement. I never told Pierre Burton about this at the time but finally a few years later decided to tell him the full story, but sadly he had died a few months earlier.. .
