Downsview Park is a large urban park located in the Downsview neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park's name is officially bilingual due to it being federally owned and managed, and was first home to de Havilland Canada, an aircraft manufacturer, and later was a Canadian Forces base. The park still contains Downsview Airport. In 1999, the Government of Canada declared it as "Canada's first urban national park." However, unlike the Rouge National Urban Park in eastern Toronto, Downsview Park is managed by the federal Crown corporation Canada Lands Company rather than Parks Canada. History Before the establishment of the aircraft plant and airfield the site was farmland that emerged after John Perkins Bull settled nearby in 1842. Aircraft manufacturing and base The area was first used in 1929 by de Havilland Canada, where it housed the company's Canadian operations. The manufacturing plant was used to make aircraft during World War II. After the war, the Department of National Defence (Canada) needed space to station Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons in the area. In 1947, the federal government acquired and consolidated 270 properties in Downsview surrounding the manufacturing plant. Destination Technodome In April 1997 North York mayor Mel Lastman proposed developing the area into a large entertainment complex. Plans included a three hockey arenas, a movie studio, year-round skiing, a whitewater rafting venue, olympic swimming pool, and a multiplex cinema. Often compared to Canada's Wonderland, it was planned to contribute to Toronto's bid for the 2008 Olympics. The developer selected was the Reichmann family's Heathmount Arts & Entertainment , and its plan got passed in North York council on December 1998. Discussions broke down with the Federal Government, and their unwillingness to sell the land. In April 1999 the Reichmann's announced they would move the plan to Montreal. In June 2000, the developer announced they would also walk way from their plans in Montreal. Urban park In 1999, the federal government announced, to great fanfare, that the park would become "Canada's first urban national park." Downsview Park announced an International Design Competition. In 2000, Bruce Mau and Rem Koolhaas submitted the winning design scheme, known as "Tree City." In the years that followed, little development took place, and the plans fell into dormancy. Instead of creating a park made up of almost entirely green space as called for in the "Tree City" plan, Parc Downsview Park Inc., the crown corporation