A military airbase turned into Canada's first national urban park
Downsview Park
Once a Canadian Forces air base, Downsview closed to military use in the 1990s and was redeveloped as a large public park, with much of its remaining land still transitioning to new housing.
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Downsview served as a Canadian Forces air base for decades, its runway also long used by de Havilland Canada and later Bombardier for aircraft manufacturing and testing next door. The federal government closed most military operations at the base in the 1990s as part of broader defence budget cuts, leaving a large tract of land in the middle of North York suddenly available for redevelopment, an unusually large parcel for a fully built-up part of the city.
From runway to parkland
Ottawa designated a significant portion of the former base as Downsview Park in the late 1990s, promoted at the time as Canada's first national urban park, managed by a federal Crown corporation rather than the city. The park has developed in phases since, adding trails, sports fields and event space, while other portions of the former base lands have been earmarked for major new residential development, with the site's conversion from military airfield to mixed park and housing land still an ongoing, multi-decade process.
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