Council reaffirms Waterfront Toronto as Port Lands’ lead agency

Toronto city council has unanimously voted in favour of an agreement that reaffirms Waterfront Toronto as the lead agency for redeveloping the Port Lands, ending the mayor’s plans to wrest control from the arms-length agency.

Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Coun. Doug Ford, complained earlier this month that Waterfront Toronto’s plan of naturalizing and creating a mixed-use neighbourhood in the industrialized waterfront area was moving too slow. They envisioned the area rebuilt with a mall, ferris wheel and monorail that would rely less on public funds.

But their plan was met with much opposition from the public as well as groups, such as the West Don Lands Committee and CodeBlueTO, which collected more than 6,200 signatures to keep the existing waterfront plans.

And many councillors, including Pam McConnell, Paula Fletcher and Raymond Cho, thanked them for their input before council voted 45-0 on the amended motion to allow Waterfront Toronto, an agency funded by the three levels of government, to continue to take the lead to develop the 404 hectare area near the mouth of the Don River. The vote was met with applause.

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“When we go off course the public is there,” Fletcher said. “When they get this excited, this agitated we have to rethink the direction. We only have one waterfront. We can only build it once.”

The city owns about 170 hectares within the 40- hectare area and signed a memorandum of understanding in 2006 with Waterfront Toronto and city agency Toronto Port Lands Co. to revitalize it over 25 years.

“This is a great day for Toronto city council,” said Coun. Peter Milczyn, who moved to amend the motion.

He added it was a day of virtually all council members and waterfront residents working together “to ensure within our lifetime we see great development occur on the waterfront, particularly on the city’s Port Lands.”

He said the mayor was listening to what he was hearing from councillors and citizens, and “we found a way to move forward.”

He added that the motion ensures Waterfront Toronto continues to be the lead agency and that the city will be a full partner in the redevelopment process, particularly when it comes to the Port Lands.

Several councillors said that the renewed commitment between the city and Waterfront Toronto should accelerate development of the area and the environmental assessment of the Don River mouth.

“This is a great win for Toronto,” said Jaye Robinson, a Ford ally who in recent days rejected the mayor’s Port Lands plans.

Milczyn said he hoped to see redevelopment begin within the next five to 10 years instead of Waterfront Toronto’s 25-year timeline.

He said the protocol councillors adopted allows all the parties to move forward on redevelopment. It sets out the framework for collaboration on the Port Lands between the city, its agency Toronto Port Lands Co., Waterfront Toronto and the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority.

The protocol also provides for further examination of the Don Mouth Environmental Assessment and the completion of the economic analysis and business implementation plan.

Milczyn said that Doug Ford has taken a great deal of criticism, but that nobody is more enthusiastic about the potential of this city and the waterfront than him.

“All that councillor Ford wants to do is to make sure it happens and it happens well,” he said.