Issues - Waterfront

Toronto’s past and the promise of the city’s future lies in its Waterfront. It is still uncertain whether the area will be transformed into an exciting, vibrant area of the city or if it will be a planning nightmare.

Joseph Bouchette, an early traveler who visited Toronto Bay while the area was still unspoiled wilderness, commented on the beautiful basin of the harbour. “Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake and reflected their inverted images of its glassy surface.” But with the commencement of European settlement, things soon changed on the Waterfront.

The major means of transportation for the first sixty years of the city’s existence was by schooner and steamboat. The wharfs handled almost all goods into and out of the city. In those early years the harbour was the centre of both commerce and recreation. Many people had small skiffs and sailboats. There was fishing, sailing and swimming in the bay in summer and skating and iceboating in winter.

The railway age changed much of that. In 1856 the Grand Trunk Railway linked Toronto and Montreal, and later the line connected through Sarnia to the United States. The company laid railway tracks along what was then known as the Esplanade. This was the original beach. To the south were the wharfs, and to the north was the town. (The main CNR train tracks are in the same location today and all that is left of the Esplanade is the name of a street.)

The railway age did much to transform Toronto into a major industrial and trading city, but it was a planning disaster. The train tracks cut off the city from its Waterfront and that division continues. Today the transportation corridor of railway tracks, Lake Shore Boulevard and the Gardiner Expressway remain as the major barrier that stands between the city and the Waterfront.

After the railways were built, the water lots south of the train tracks were gradually filled in and new land was created. This land filling continued for many years, but in the 1920s thousands of acres of land were created. Virtually all of the land south of the railway tracks to the water’s edge is landfill. In total about one-quarter of the area of the bay was lost to landfill.

Originally most of this new land was devoted to industrial uses such as factories and warehousing, and it remained that way for over 50 years. It was not a very attractive place. Factories belched smoke from their stacks. Coal fired, steam driven railway engines chugged constantly back and forth picking up and delivering goods. Horses and wagons thronged the roads. Remnants of this industrial age are still spotted in the area with the Canada Malting silos, Tip Top Tailors and the remodeled Terminal Building on Queen’s Quay. When the Toronto Island Airport was developed in the late 1930s no one thought much about its impact on the surrounding neighbourhood because there were almost no residents. It was a degraded industrial area avoided by the public.

The transformation of Toronto’s Waterfront in recent years is a remarkable story of the rebuilding of the inner city. It happened for a number of reasons. Factories began moving out of the downtown as their need for labour decreased and the chief means of the transportation of goods became trucking. Gradually in the 1950s and in later decades the land became underutilized and often vacant.

Housing needs also changed. Many people want to avoid the suburbs and live in multi-unit complexes close to the city’s downtown, with access to public transit. They began to rediscover the Waterfront. It began slowly at first. The Bathurst Street Neighbourhood was built over a number of years in the early 1970’s. The Harbour Square condos at Bay Street and Queen’s Quay were built in the late 70s along with the Harbour Castle Hotel.

Planners, politicians, developers and residents began to recognize that the Waterfront and the Railway Lands were places where new neighbourhoods could be built. In 1988 the federal government appointed David Crombie to head the Royal Commission on the Future of the Waterfront. The commission later became the Waterfront Regeneration Trust in 1992 when it was taken over by the province. This work resulted in the Waterfront Trail, a 740 kilometer bicycle and walking trail along the north shore of Lake Ontario. But perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the Trust was in increasing the public’s awareness of the Waterfront.

Finally in 2001 the federal and provincial governments along with the city established the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (now called Waterfront Toronto) with the express purpose of redeveloping the waterfront. There are a variety of objectives of the massive project. They include reducing urban sprawl, increasing economic competitiveness, developing sustainable live-work communities, building more affordable housing and creating spectacular parks and public spaces. It is the most significant redevelopment project in the country.

Despite these lofty aims, it seems at this moment that not much has been accomplished. “All talk and no action,” is the criticism. There is some truth to that but the TWRC defends itself by saying they are still in the planning stage. Shovels will soon be in the ground. Perhaps the greatest accomplishment to date has been the remarkable level of public consultation in the development of the plans.

There are two major projects that are currently underway in the Waterfront redevelopment. For a detailed overview of the plans and scope of the project see http://www.towaterfront.ca/index.php

The West Don Lands is a 94 acre site between Cherry Street in the west and the Don River, the railroad tracks in the south and King Street. The project ultimately will house 6,000 people. At the moment the site is being prepared. A flood protection berm is being constructed, old buildings have been cleared and construction is beginning.

The other major project is the East Bayfront. This is a 55 acres site along the waterfront east of Jarvis to Parliament. When completed, it will have 5,000 commercial residential units and 1,000 affordable units. East Bayfront will also have jobs for 8,000 people. The head office of Corus Entertainment is already under construction and a campus for George Brown College is in the planning stages.

But despite all of this progress but there remain serious problems facing Waterfront rejuvenation. Perhaps the most troubling is the impact of the economic downturn on Waterfront plans? Construction is continuing on projects in Toronto that have their funding in place, but all new construction is on hold because of the credit crisis. Unless this crisis is solved quickly it will stop new construction. It could set back Waterfront rejuvenation by years and force a major redesign of the project.

The Toronto Island Airport is in the very heart of the Waterfront. Porter Airlines plans a 3000% increase in the volume of air traffic at the airport, turning the Waterfront into an ugly, polluted industrial zone. If the Waterfront is to become the magnet for Torontonians and tourists, the Island Airport must close and the lands turned into a park.

Governance issues have largely been solved but they remain contentious. TEDCO (Toronto Economic Development Corporation) has been disbanded but in the past the infighting between TEDCO and other agencies has been fierce. At one point Waterfront Toronto and TEDCO both hired different architects to design a development on the same patch of land. It remains to be seen if all of the different agencies who have a stake in the Waterfront can work together.

One criticism frequently heard is that a wall of condos will be built along the Waterfront which will block public access. There will be public access to the water along the entire length of the Waterfront when the project is completed but will the dense condo developments discourage public use?

The provincial government has built a huge gas fired electric power generating station on the Waterfront next to the Hearn plant in what was to be part of a 500 acre park. This is a continuation of the policy of using Waterfront land as industrial rather than converting it for public use.

It will take another ten years before the shape of the new Waterfront emerges from the planners’ drawings, and it is likely it will be twenty years before the Waterfront is completely rebuilt. Expect many detours and controversies before the project finally emerges.