User:Mindmatrix/Skunkworks/East Humber Headwaters Park

East Humber Headwaters Park is the provisional name for a proposed park in eastern King, Ontario, Canada. It would be located on the Oak Ridges Moraine, and include the headwaters of the Humber River. It would consist of a wedge-shaped portion of the land bounded by Bathurst Street at the municipal border of King and Richmond Hill in the east, King Road to the south, Dufferin Street to the west, and 15th Sideroad to the north. The 511 acre parcel of land on which the park would be established is privately owned vacant property, with the owner willing to exchange the land with the Government of Ontario for another parcel suitable for development in another municipality. The property had been the subject of an application to develop a golf course in the 1990s before the introduction of the Oak Ridges Moraine Conservation Act, to which it is now subject. The owner has a right to appeal the decision for the proposed development, as the application was submitted before the Act was passed.

Resolutions supporting the creation of the park have been passed by the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, the government of the Regional Municipality of York, the municipal government of King, and the municipal government of Toronto. Its creation was supported by candidate representatives for the King—Vaughan electoral district during the 2018 provincial election. It has also been supported by Ontario Nature, EcoSpark, Earthroots, Concerned Citizens of King Township and the Save the Oak Ridges Moraine coalition.

The resolution passed by the municipal government of King formally requested that once a land exchange has been completed, the lands be transferred by the provincial government either to Ontario Parks, or for a nominal cost to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

The goal is to gradually restore the natural habitats, improving the wildlife linkage corridor between the eastern and western portions of the Oak Ridges Moraine, and to eventually open it to the public.

Creation of the park was included in the 2021 Ontario provincial budget and would include the participation of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. In the budget document, it was described as an enhancement to the Greenbelt in the Golden Horseshoe to establish a permanent and "uninterrupted link between the eastern and western ends of the moraine".