Environmental Assessment on Bay and Yonge St. ‘down ramps’ off the Gardiner
Various stakeholders from the communities affected by the ‘re-engineering’ of the down ramps, were invited for a-four hour ‘charete’ on Sat February 6th to discuss preliminary findings and explore options.

A public meeting will be called shortly to discuss the final selection of the best option based on further technical evaluation currently underway. The objective is to improve traffic flows at the various intersections, and in the process do away with the ugly concrete ramps in front of Harbour Square (the circular ramp and the long east ramp into Bay Street. Four teams, working independently of each other, all concluded on the basis of the presentations, that the best of the four options was the one that brought traffic strait down to grade at Lower Simcoe. This will also facilitate traffic turning north into Simcoe, with two lanes continuing east on Lake Shore, with options to turn north or south on York; and continuing east on Harbour Road. The EA team will provide more data on the study of traffic flows for each option (including pedestrian volumes on York, Bay and Yonge Streets.

East Bayfront Stakeholder Advisory Committee Meeting (Thursday Feb 11, 2010)

Readers are recommended to visit Waterfrontoronto’s website.

Sugar Beach

This park on the water’s edge of Lower Jarvis will be completed in the summer of 2010, at about the same time as the new Corus building will be ready for occupation.

George Brown College Waterfront Campus

An integrated health professional training campus is moving ahead of schedule. Construction is already underway. Representatives of GB College and their Architects (Stantec/KPMB in Joint Venture) made an impressive presentation. The first phase for up to 2500 students will be completed in 2012. The food facilities/ library and some other areas will be open 24/7. There is excellent integration with the public realm and the water’s edge.

Water’s Edge Promenade and Stormwater Management Facility

Construction of the boardwalk (to match that already constructed along Harbourfront Centre) is underway and will be substantially completed by 2011. Design is by the competition winners for the redevelopment of Queens Quay – West 8 and DTAH.

Parkside Development Update

At Lower Sherborne a major new park is planned. This includes a body of water that penetrates from the Lake inland to the edge of Lake Shore East. A competition is underway for naming this park. On it eastern edge a development by Great Gulf Group of Companies is planned. This is a mixed use high-rise complex, with the ground floor providing extensive commercial retail space (restaurants, etc) to maximize public access and interaction. The project was conceived by Moshe Safdi, architect for the Montreal Expo. A representative for Quadrangle Architects Limited, made a presentation. This project has still some ways to go to finalise design, planning approvals, and secure financing. Project completion is scheduled for 2015.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail


It is not just Island residents that object to further expansion. It is a growing movement and it is almost everyone who lives on the Waterfront who is against it. This is a regional facility. TPA effort should be spent mitigating the disaster already there, and adhering to conditions in the Agreement,instead of bulldozing expansion.

The Tri-partite Agreement that opened the way for Commercial flights was drafted 27 years ago, when almost all the land south of the tracks was vacant. There are now about 50,000 residents on the Waterfront;
In any developed country, any expansion would require a major Enviromental Assessment carried by out by experts, in consultation with all three levels of Government, AND the community;
There are major issues of noise, health, safety, traffic and air and water pollution that are not being addressed. We heard at a meeting of the Toronto Board of Health, that toxic de-icing fluids are infiltrating the city’s water system, and may also be flowing directly into the Lake.
The issues relating to Airport Security, to bring it in line with USA requirements, has probably not even been discussed, and the physical barriers and traffic chaos that will entail are still to unfold, slowly, as have all the other announcements in connection with this airport.
There is a childrens park and playground almost abutting the fence of the TPA ferry dock; as well as a major school and a community centre a hundred meters or so away;
The use of the of the Music Gardens is all but lost, due to the noise. If you walk along the water’s edge some mornings, you can smell kerosene fumes; residents complain of layers of grit on their balconies; others already talk of spouses being nursed behind closed windows, because of respiratory illness and cancer.
Please help wake up our larger Community to what’s ahead, because of one stupid decision.

I personally do not know of any other airport in a major city with this proximity to a residential area; nor of any developed country that will sacrifice a major resource such as what Waterfront Toronto are in the process of developing, ironically with the funds (taxpayer’s money) from three levels of Government.

Finally, I want to say how disgusted I was at the bullying tactics displayed by the TPA officials, at the so called ‘Public Meeting’. People were expected to drift around some complex panels stuck around the wall, and ask individual questions. There was no Chairperson, no seating, no microphone. There was however, an incredible display of arrogance, almost sneering, at the thought of having to put up with ‘Community’, and having to respond to serious questions, raised by a number of concerned residents; of course there seemed to be no credible answers from the CEO and MD of TPA.

We have hundreds of young men coming home on a regular basis, draped in flags; and thousands of others wounded. They have been sent to teach ‘Democracy’ in Afghanstan. Please let us start by more civility and a display of Democracy at home, by our Federal Agency at the TPA.

Thank you for raising this issue for public discussion.

Written b: Braz Menezes, Urban Planner and Resident

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail





Representatives of the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, CommunityAIR, The Toronto Island Community Association, the Harbourfront Community Centre, the YQNA and dozens of members of the waterfront community attended the Toronto Port Authority’s meeting regarding the Draft Noise Study Report for the Island Airport.

The February 17 meeting, which was well-attended and included heated exchanges between the community and TPA officials, took place at the Queens Quay Radisson Hotel.

A technical Advisory Group consisted of representatives from all Waterfront associations was set up by the TPA in Nov 2008 to give input to the Noise Study. The Advisory Group has met with the TPA only twice since the Study commencement in Nov 2008. The Feb 17 meeting is being held without any significant input into the Noise Report contents by the Technical Advisory Group since project commencement. The TPA is calling the meeting a ‘public meeting’ despite only 9 days official web posting notice spanning a long weekend and no advertising in local papers. The Advisory Group feels that the motive for the TPA in circumventing the Advisory Group is to suppress informed technical inquiry into the findings of the noise study report. This presentation of the Noise Study by the TPA will be the first one seen by the Advisory Group.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail


Waterfront Toronto and Harbourfront Centre plan to replace the 212-spot surface parking lot — a 1.4 hectare area in the heart of the Harbourfront Centre site — with an underground parking garage.

This important new piece of parking infrastructure will open up this spectacular waterfront site for future public space including Canada Square, a beautiful waterfront square and a second urban square above the parking garage.

On March 2nd, Harbourfront Centre and Waterfront Toronto will be holding a public meeting to present plans and discuss key features of the York Quay Revitalization Project, Phase II including the underground parking garage, Canada Square and the planning of a future Cultural Retail Village.

Understanding the Project
Harbourfront Centre operates a 10 acre site along Toronto’s central waterfront which encompasses York and John Quays. In 2000, Harbourfront Centre developed a master plan for the revitalization of its site designed to reclaim underutilized spaces for recreational, cultural and commercial purposes and strengthen public access
to the water’s edge. The master plan also included a vision for Canada Square, an urban plaza at the water’s edge.

This project, now known as the York Quay Revitalization Project, has since evolved to include elements from the winning submission of Waterfront Toronto’s 2006 Central Waterfront Design Competition. In its submission, the design team, West 8 + DTAH envisioned a vibrant, mixed-use cultural village for the site including Canada
Square and another urban square bordering Queens Quay. World renowned landscape architectural Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Landscape Architects recently won the contract to design this Phase II work.

An overview of the project will be provided by Harbourfront Centre and Waterfront Toronto, and a presentation on some preliminary ideas for the parking garage and Canada Square will also be given by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Landscape Architects.

Public feedback will be solicited and members of the project team will be on hand to answer questions and share ideas.

Public Meeting Details:
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West
York Quay Centre, ―Lakeside Terrace‖ Meeting Room
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. (Presentation and Discussion)

For more information:
Please visit www.waterfrontoronto.ca
or contact Andrea Kelemen at
416-214-1344 or [email protected]
www.waterfrontoronto.ca

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail


On Monday, February 8, a dozen waterfront residents met with Mayor David Miller in his office at City Hall. The delegation, which included representatives from the Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, CommunityAIR, the Harbourfront Community Centre, the Toronto Island Community Association, the YQNA, and Councillors Pam McConnell and Adam Vaughan, met with Mayor Miller for nearly an hour.

The residents spent the first part of the meeting detailing the repeated violations of the Tripartite Agreement, unbearable traffic problems, Porter’s frequent curfew violations, the Toronto Port Authority’s failure to appear before last month’s Board of Health meeting, and the water, noise and air pollution generated by the Island Airport.

The second part of the meeting was spent working out a detailed plan for remedying the resident’s concerns. Mayor Miller promised that the city would begin taking a more active role as one of the three partners of the Tripartite Agreement.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail