Item - 2026.SC32.25

Councillor Paul Ainslie recommends that:

1. City Council waive Section 6 of the Street Naming Policy and approve the name “Rouge National Urban Park Road” for the renaming of a section of Zoo Road extending from Meadowvale Road and Zoo Road south intersection traffic control signals, continuing eastwards to the entrance of Rouge National Urban Park.

2. City Council request the Director, Engineering Support Services, Engineering and Construction Services, and the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture to undertake any required technical, administrative, mapping, and by-law amendments necessary to implement the street renaming by the end of 2026.

3. City Council request the General Manager, Transportation Services to install, remove and/or replace all necessary street name signage by the end of 2026.

Rouge National Urban Park stands as a landscape of national significance and a defining feature of the Greater Toronto Area. As Canada’s largest urban park, it welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and serves as a vital sanctuary for biodiversity and conservation education. The park reached a major milestone last year, marking a decade since the federal government’s commitment to its creation, and we must now look toward the next critical phase of its development.

The park is currently undergoing a transformative expansion, with the new $20 million Rouge National Urban Park Visitor, Learning and Community Centre scheduled for its grand opening in 2027. This facility will serve as the primary gateway for residents and tourists to experience the park's full potential, making it essential that the transportation links and arrival points are clearly established and intuitively named well in advance of the opening date.

Currently, two separate roadways share the name "Zoo Road," which creates significant navigational confusion. The eastern portion—while retaining the name—no longer leads to the Toronto Zoo and instead functions as the main access route for the national park. This duplication creates challenges for first-time visitors who find themselves misdirected and places an operational strain on local stakeholders like the ZooShare Biogas Plant, which has reported years of fielding calls from lost suppliers. Furthermore, clear and distinct road names are a prerequisite for efficient emergency response times within the park and surrounding industrial areas.

This renaming is not merely an administrative change but a unified request from every major tenant in the area, including Parks Canada (Appendix 1), the Toronto Zoo (Appendix 2), the Friends of Rouge National Urban Park (Appendix 3), the Waterfront Regeneration Trust (Appendix 4), and the ZooShare Biogas Co-operative (Appendix 5). This request meets the spirit of the policy through its unanimous institutional support and the undeniable suitability of the name “Rouge National Urban Park Road” for this specific location.

Given the impending 2027 opening and the low-cost, high-impact nature of this improvement, I am requesting to approve this renaming. It mirrors previous successful renamings, which strengthened the identity of a major City landmarks. Approval will ensure all technical mapping and signage updates are completed in time for the park's next chapter.