Plans for Ontario Place to include residential development
Posted July 5, 2012 10:43 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
After months of speculation, plans for Ontario Place are beginning to emerge.
CityNews has learned that an advisory panel’s recommendations for the coveted waterfront location will include a mix of both residential and recreational development.
The panel chair, former MPP John Tory, talked with CityNews about the potential housing component.
“I think people would feel there’s room for very limited scale, high quality design residential development of some kind there,” he told CityNews in an exclusive interview.
“If you want people to live, work, and play there, then there’s got to be a place for them to live.”
CityNews sources confirm the panel is looking at recommending thousands of condo units, but city planners said the proposal would not include a “wall of condos” and Tory maintains the number one priority will be “retaining and improving public access to the waterfront.”
Coun. Mike Layton, who has pushed to keep Ontario Place family-friendly, said discussions about the future of Ontario Place are premature and the area needs to become more accessible to the public.
“We really shouldn’t be talking about anything down there until we figure out how to get people there,” he said. “Because right now you’ve got to cross the sets of tracks you’ve got to cross the Gardiner, you’ve got to cross Lake Shore to get there, and there’s no transit.
“So until we have solved the problem of transit to Ontario Place we are not going to get anywhere.”
Last month Tory nixed the idea of a casino at Ontario Place, saying it wasn’t an appropriate place for a gambling resort.
