Brawl over 'beautiful' billion-year-old boulder rocks Bloor neighbourhood
Neighbours of a giant granite boulder that recently made a dramatic reappearance on Bloor Street are mounting a campaign to keep the rock in their neighbourhood.
The 2,000-kilogram rock was unearthed in July when construction crews began digging up the ground near the corner of Major Street and Bloor Street West.
"It's a newly discovered long-time neighbour. It's beautiful." said Michol Hoffman, who lives on Major Street.
"It's sort of become a symbol of our street."
The massive stone is estimated to be 1.1 to 1.4 billion years old. It may have been carried to Toronto from the Georgian Bay area by a glacier some 14,000 years ago, University of Toronto professor Joe Desloges said.
But after spending thousands of years at its current location, the rock could be on the roll once again, and some locals aren't happy about it.
The local business improvement association is planning to move the boulder to a parkette that's under construction at Howland Avenue and Bloor Street West, around 200 metres from Major Street.
It's one of five parkettes currently being built in the area by the Bloor Annex BIA, including one on Major Street — at the exact location where the boulder turned up.
"Why would you want to have that expense and decide to move it?" asked James Murdoch.
"We've decided that we really do want to keep that rock on Major Street, where it was found."
Murdoch, Hoffman and other neighbours have launched a letter writing campaign to the local BIA. They also have plans to start a petition in their bid to keep the rock close to home, and critically, on the south side of Bloor Street.
"The thought that it will move from Harbord Village to the Annex is a little sad for us," explained Hoffman.
"Who knows, we may join hands around the rock, and I don't know, chain ourselves to it," she joked.
BIA stonewalling effort
The BIA says it has made every effort to accommodate the boulder in the new parkettes. However, the only parkette large enough to accommodate the stone is on Howland Avenue.
Designs for the parkettes were finalized three years ago, BIA chair Brian Burchell told CBC Toronto. He said the Major Street plans are already set in stone.
"It's designed to the millimetre," he said. "There isn't a lot of flexibility in terms of the timing.'
Burchell argued that the decision to move the stone just a few blocks to the west does not represent a major loss for the neighbourhood.
"Yes, the rock will be 200 metres from where it was found, but we frankly don't see that as significant," he said.
The new parkettes are part of a $2.8-million project and are scheduled to be finished by October.
The BIA said it is also working with the city to find new homes for two smaller boulders that were also discovered on Major Street. There are plans to move the sibling stones to local city parks.
