The Town of Whitby purchased Cullen Central Park in 2006. At present, residents use the park for public recreation as well as, facility rentals for private and public functions and summer camps for children.

In 2007, the Town of Whitby hired consultants (Envision - The Hough Group, dmA Planning and Management Services and urbanMetrics Inc.) to undertake a Master Plan Study to determine future uses of the property.

Cullen Central Park is a unique property located in a unique location that is in both an urban and natural setting. These qualities allow consideration of a range of possibilities when determining the future use(s) of the facilities and land. Within this site, there are broad ranges of very special areas with varied characteristics. There are 10 areas for consideration in the Study (including the trails, pathways and roads), which can be seen in the following Character Areas Map.

Phase 1 - Physical inventory and draft principlestop

For Phase 1 of the study, the consultants conducted a physical inventory and analysis of the site and developed draft visions and principles for the property and its character areas. A public meeting was held on January 23, 2008. Products from this phase include:

• Phase 1 Background Report
• Phase 1 Background Report Attachments
• Overall Strategic Principles and Key Considerations for the Tableland and Valleyland
• Phase 1 January 23 Public Meeting Minutes

---

• Two reports were provided to the Operations Committee during Phase 1:
• Report to Operations Committee, January 14, 2008
• Report to Operations Committee, March 25, 2008

Phase 2 & 3 - Identifying and assessing potential usestop

For Phase 2 & 3 of the study, the consultants developed scenarios for the property and identified relevant potential uses, developed equally weighted criteria to evaluate the scenarios, and conducted a Public Workshop on May 22, 2008.The report below, provided to the Operations Committee during Phase 2/3, describes the scenarios, potential uses, and the evaluation criteria:

• Report to Operations Committee, May 5, 2008
• Summary of scenarios and potential uses
• Summary of May 22nd, 2008 Public Workshop
• Appendix A of Summary

Phase 4 - Final Recommendationstop

Staff and consultants have developed final recommendations for the use and programming of the property. These were presented at the Operations Committee meeting on Monday, May 4, 2009. Below is the Staff report and minutes from the meeting.

• Cullen Central Park Master Plan Phase 4 Development Strategy
• Operations Committee meeting minutes

Opportunities for Public Inputtop

This study provides the public the opportunity to offer their input and become aware of findings produced by the study. It is essential that the public is kept updated with the study stages and allowed to provide key input as this land is an important public asset to the community. There will be public meeting opportunities on the following phases:

• Introductory Public Meeting - June 28, 2007
• Phase 1 - Inventory and analysis of natural and heritage assets, develop overall visions and principles, Public Meeting Jan 23rd, 2008
• Phase 2 & 3 - A Public Workshop was held on May 22nd, 2008
• Phase 4 - Presentation of Draft Final Report, late Fall 2008. Details will posted as soon as they are finalized.

There will also be other opportunities for public input. These other input methods are more informal in nature than the public meetings and include:

• Focus Groups - Focus groups were formed to gather information from users, key agencies
• General comments may be submitted by email to edwardss@whitby.ca or in writing to the Community and Marketing Services Department, 575 Rossland Road East, Whitby ON L1N 2M8
• Comment forms will be available at all public meetings

Summary of Terms of Referencetop

The Terms of Reference prescribes a four-phased study taking approximately eight months to complete. The Terms of Reference guides the purpose and content of the Master Plan. Its basic purpose is to provide strategic directions, identify and evaluate potential uses, and to guide use(s) of the property over the next 5-10 year period.

The Master Plan will provide a policy document for future management of the property. It will also act as an implementation tool. The Study regards existing policies. These foundation policies include the Community Strategic Plan, Culture Parks Recreation and Open Space Master Plan, Official Plan, Accessibility Plan, and the CLOCA Sensitive Areas Mapping.

It is the intent of the Terms of Reference that the Study should provide vision(s) that will act as the primary guideline for Cullen Central Park. It is not required that a singular vision be developed and therefore multiple visions can be developed for Cullen Central Park. The vision(s) derived will be formulated from the strategic principles which are to be identified during the study. These strategic principles derive from areas such as the property's qualities, assets, context, as well as policy foundations. The Terms of Reference do not prescribe specific strategic principles, however an example is provided below.

Environmentally Sensitive Area's - uses in or adjacent shall have regard for the ecological qualities and adverse impacts of uses shall be mitigated.

As mentioned before, Cullen Central Park has many unique areas, and therefore due to the uniqueness of the property the 10 specific areas to be addressed in the study have been prescribed.

Each one of the areas may have uses identified that will potentially align with the strategic principles that will be developed, but will also be assessed through a set of criteria. Uses may be developed for each of the specific study areas or study area combinations. There are 8 criteria that are suggested for assessment of the proposed uses;

1. Satisfies a Strategic Principle
2. Satisfies current Inventories
3. Determine if Services are Adequate to accommodate use
4. Determine if there are any impacts on adjoining uses
5. Business Planning Models for use (viability)
6. Identify existing or potential partnerships for use
7. Determine whether the use is Marketable
8. Identify real costs

Once Council has approved the final recommendations in regard to potential uses for the property and the specific areas within the property, an important next step and priority will be to update the Official Plan and zoning for the entire Cullen site to allow for the future uses to be implemented in time.
There are four phases to this study that will generally provide the information, input opportunities, analysis, and deliverable outcomes. Each Phase is summarized below:

Phase 1 - Background, Inventory, General Vision - Principles

Background information of past and current uses
Existing services, facilities
Inventory of cultural, heritage, environmental, etc. information
Input - Public, Groups, Agencies, etc.
Key Policies
Municipal Needs

Phase 2 - Identification of Potential Uses

Identify potential uses for entire site or study areas within the site
Define programs associated with each use of the site
Identify relationships within adjoining study areas, area attributes and with abutting properties

Phase 3 - Assessment of Potential Uses

The assessment of uses will be measured against the 8 assessment criteria listed above.

Phase 4 - Final Recommendations

• Recommended Potential Uses
• Programming
• Costs - Operating and Capital
• Revenues
• Implementation Strategies
• Timing
• Conceptual Site Plan(s)

• More Resources
• Work Plan for Cullen Central Park

Contacttop

Manager of Parks, Marina, Long Range Planning, Special Events and Tourism
Steve Edwards
(905) 430-4300 ext: 2424
edwardss@whitby.ca