Ontario had no use for 6 parcels of land. An urban park is being carved out instead

Ontario is working to build its next provincial park in Uxbridge. The plan comes after years of local lobbying and a fortunate patch of surplus land.

The rural town of Uxbridge, Ont., is a paradise for outdoor enthusiasts.

It is home to some of Ontario’s best hiking trails and biking routes, with kilometres of pristine Greenbelt land, a smattering of farmhouses and boutique local businesses.

For decades, however, six parcels of land in the township have been shuttered to the public. Signs around roughly 1,300 acres of land in the leafy green town warn adventurers to keep out.

That’s about to change. Through sustained advocacy from the mayor and local community, the land that was guarded behind no-trespassing signs is undergoing a major transformation and is set to become Ontario’s newest provincial park.

The local mayor — a keen hiker and cyclist himself — said the plan to turn the six separate parcels into some kind of parkland, supplemented with whatever extra land the government can afford to add, has been years in the making.

“It begins with a development that didn’t happen, in the early 2000s,” Uxbridge Mayor Dave Barton told Global News.

“Then, in 2007, there was a land swap with the developer that put that in the hands of Infrastructure Ontario. And these 1,300 acres have been sitting with Infrastructure Ontario since then.”

In September 2021, Infrastructure Ontario decided it had no use for the lands and put in motion plans to sell them, documents obtained by Global News through freedom of information laws show. The land was touted to other ministries and government bodies under rules that give the public sector first refusal on land sold by the Ontario government.