Acres of opportunity on waterfront
Big number: 880 acres, the size of the Port Lands, an area roughly equivalent to Toronto’s downtown core, from Bathurst Street to Parliament Street, and Queens Quay to Dundas Street. After two-and-a-half years, dozens of community meetings and the presentation of a proposal longer than the longest Harry Potter book, Sidewalk Sidewalk Labs made it official last week: the company — a corpo- rate sibling to Google — is calling it quits. Their proposal for Toronto’s waterfront is gone. But the waterfront isn’t.
I know what you’re thinking: duh. But it’s worth pointing out that the demise of Sidewalk’s effort is not the end of Toronto’s dream of having a great waterfront. Whatever your opinion was on the particulars of the Sidewalk plan, everyone should acknowledge that a partnership with a global technology conglomerate is not a necessary component of realizing a waterfront development strategy. There’s no guidebook to lakeside development that starts with “Step 1: Email Google.” The opportunity is still massive, and still achievable. Quayside, the core of the Sidewalk plan at the foot of Parliament Street, remains a prime 12-acre piece of land next to developments that have managed to move forward without the controversy of the Sidewalk plan. Give it a bit of time and Waterfront Toronto should not have a lot of trouble finding a replacement plan. But the real prize, as Sidewalk often pointed out in their planning documents, is a bit further east: the Port Lands. There, the total land, including developable area, existing green space and ccurrent industrial uses, totals about 880 acres.
To put that in context, that’s the same amount of land as an area spanning from Bathurst Street to Parliament Street, and Queens Quay to Dundas Street. It’s another potential downtown, within walking distance of Toronto’s current downtown.
“Few other world cities have such an opportunity,” concluded a 2012 planning report on the Port Lands. “The scale and location of the Port Lands are such that they can accommodate effectively a new waterfront city within a city.”
The economic downturn caused by COVID-19 need not be a deterrent to the development of this city within a city. In fact, COVID-19 should accelerate things. History is filled with examples of governments using major infrastructure projects as a way to build up their economy after major downturns. The Port Lands could be the modern Canadian equivalent of the Tennessee Valley Authority during the Great Depression — a chance to juice an economy that will be thirsty for a while.
Not only will waterfront development in this area create thousands of construction jobs, there are also a bunch of other long-lasting economic and social benefits. The city has been looking for publicly owned land to build affordable rental housing — the waterfront waterfront has a whole lot of it. And a lot of room too. A 2017 report estimated a fully built out Port Lands could be home to up to 31,000 people and 30,000 jobs, most of whom would be in a great position to bike, walk or take transit to get around.
And, at a time when the city is starting to feel pretty cramped, don’t forget about the green space. The city is looking at adding an additional 160 acres of parkland in the Port Lands — that’s on top of what’s already provided in the area at Cherry Beach and along Leslie Spit.
The best part: Much of the groundwork has been laid to build and even accelerate this work. Community meetings before and during the Sidewalk saga have given planners knowledge of what people want. Construction work is ongoing to flood-proof areas of the Port Lands, creating a brand new island ready for residents and jobs. And just last month, Waterfront Toronto’s Design Review Panel saw the latest design revisions from landscape architecture firm Michael VanValkenburgh Associates for the promenade of parks that will line the re-naturalized Don River. They look spectacular.
It is a shame that over the last two-and-a-half years all this astounding potential and significant progress got buried under a prolonged debate aabout technology, privacy and corporate involvement in city building. But it’s time now for aaall levels of government to refocus and see Toronto’s waterfront development as an ideal economic stimulus opportunity in a post-pandemic aage. Sidewalk Labs’ proposal is gone.
But our waterfront, and all its potential, remains. Matt Elliott is a Toronto-based freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GraphicMatt