Toronto waterfront

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The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River in the east.

History

Lake Ontario is a recent lake.

Since the last ice age, silt deposits, borne mostly from the erosion of the Scarborough Bluffs and the eluvial rivers to the east were swept by strong, natural Lake Ontario currents creating prominent fingers of land away from the lakeshore in the current central waterfront area, including the Toronto Islands. The shore of Lake Ontario (at least within present-day Toronto Harbour) is mostly landfill, extending a kilometre or more from the natural shoreline.

Adding to the existing silt deposits,

Toronto expanded along the waterfront with new residential suburbs. West of the Humber River, outside the city limits, the waterfront has been mainly private lands fronting on the lake. East of the Humber River, within the city limits, the waterfront is under the control of the government. The Sunnyside lakefront from the Humber east to Jameson was filled in, creating new lands for recreational and park land uses. To the east of Sunnyside, the lands were originally military grounds, centred on Fort York. The Garrison lands became the Exhibition grounds and have been public ever since. To the east of the harbour area, parklands were built along the waterfront from Ashbridges Bay east to the eastern city border at Victoria Park. Further east, the Scarborough lands have been dominated by the Scarborough Bluffs and development could not proceed to the waterfront.

In the 1950s, the

Tonnage to the Toronto Port has declined over the past 50 years, replaced by increases in other modes of transportation. The Toronto Harbour Commission was eventually dissolved, its lands transferred to the City except for those specifically to be controlled by the successor

The area between York Street and Jarvis Street along the water has remained in private ownership except for the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal. Residential condominiums and the large Harbour Castle hotel were built along the water and the Toronto Star built a new headquarters office building at Yonge Street.

The Redpath Sugar Factory remains, and several industrial buildings have been converted into other uses. The area along the water has been primarily owned by the Toronto Harbour Commission, and eventually transferred to the City's Economic Commission.

In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney called another Royal Commission into the waterfront that was headed by former mayor David Crombie. It was reported in 1992 with a detailed, but expensive plan of environmentally sound development following on the heels of his 1982–86 Toronto Waterfront Regeneration Trust Commission report. Few, if any of the recommendations were carried out, as had been the case during the previous 60 years.

Toronto's bids for the 1996 and 2008

As of 2008, most of the lands to the east of Yonge Street, around and east of the Don River are slated for redevelopment directed by the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation. Plans are to build predominantly low-rise developments, with a waterfront opened up to public uses, including recreation. The Don River, diverted into a channel is slated to become 'naturalized' with more natural river banks and a more natural appearance.

Timeline

• 1750 – Fort Rouillé trading post is built on waterfront by French military
• 1759 – Fort Rouillé abandoned by French during war with Great Britain
• 1793 – John Graves Simcoe orders the building of Toronto Garrison to guard the western entrance (then, the only entrance) to the harbour.
• 1808 – Gibraltar Point Lighthouse is built on Toronto Bay peninsula

• 1813 – American forces capture the Toronto Garrison at the Battle of York, along with ransacking York, and burning down the Parliament buildings.
• 1814 – Garrison is rebuilt as Fort York
• 1832 – Construction of the
  Gooderham & Worts distillery to the west of the Don River
  mouth which grew to become the world's largest distillery.
• 1858 – a violent storm rips a gap at the eastern end of the Toronto Bay peninsula now known as Toronto Island — the gap later becomes the eastern channel.
• 1890s – First undertaken as a sanitary works project, channelization of the lower Don begins, first the mouth is straightened directly southward (Ainsworth Cut).
• 1911 – Toronto Harbour Commission created to manage port infrastructure and work on resolve the Don River mouth alignments.
• 1922 – Construction of the Keating Channel is completed in order to allow large container vessels deeper water access closer to the Don mouth and nearby industry.

• 1920s – THC fills in 200 feet (61 m) of harbour shoreline in area south of Harbour Street from Bathurst Street to Don River. THC also fills in marshlands south of Don River for industrial and port development. These are known today as the
  Portlands. THC also extends shoreline in Sunnyside district and opens Sunnyside Amusement Park
• 1926 – The City of Toronto takes over the Toronto Island ferries.
• 1935 – Construction begins on a tunnel from the end of Stadium Road to the western sandbar (a future airport site) as a depression relief project. Opposed by Toronto Mayor
  Samuel McBride
  , it is abandoned several weeks later after a change of federal government.
• 1939 – After 11 years of planning and two years of construction, the Port George VI Island Airport opens on the western sandbar, near the foot of Bathurst Street.
• 1940–43 – The
  Nazi occupation of Norway
  . Moves to Northern Ontario base after several crashes and noise from operations.
• 1949 – While docked at Pier 9, the luxury cruise ship SS Noronic catches fire and burns, killing over 118 people
• 1954 – Hurricane Hazel changes the topography of the harbour, splintering the main island into several smaller islands.
• 1970 – Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant, a restaurant on board the MS Normac in Toronto harbour opens
• 1971 – Ontario Place opens, on man-made islands to the west of the Toronto Islands
• 1972 –
  Harbourfront Centre
  is established by the Federal Government
• 1988 – Royal Commission set-up to formulate a plan for Toronto's harbour
• 1991–94 – Transfer of 800 acres (320 ha) of port lands to City of Toronto' Toronto Economic Development Commission (TEDCO) in return for permanent subsidy of THC.
• 1994 – Toronto Island Airport renamed Toronto City Centre Airport.
• 1999 – Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Premier Mike Harris and Mayor Mel Lastman announced at a press conference the formation of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force

• 1999 –
  Toronto Port Authority
  (TPA) created to replace the Toronto Harbour Commission
• 2000 – The (Robert Fung) Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Task Force Report was released to the public.
• 2001–2002 – The TPA sues the City for $1 billion over lands transferred in 1990s; settles for $55 million settlement and agreement to permit building of bridge to Island; end of permanent subsidy for lands.
• 2003 – After election of Mayor David Miller; bridge to island airport is canceled.
• 2004 – The Rochester/Toronto Ferry starts service in May and ends in November
• 2006 – The Rochester/Toronto Ferry announces that it will no longer be in business
• 2006 – TEDCO and its partners Rose Corp and Toronto Film Studios begin construction of a new Film Studio ("
  Filmport
  ") in the Portlands set to open in Spring 2008
• 2006 – The Ontario Government proposes a new electrical generation plant in the port lands (Portlands Energy Centre)
• 2006 – REGCO Holdings signs a 25-year deal with the Toronto Port Authority to run an airline service out of the island airport (Porter Airlines)
• 2007 – TEDCO begins construction of Corus Quay office building for media company Corus Entertainment at the foot of Jarvis Street
• 2009 –
  Sherbourne Park.^[3]
• 2009 – Toronto City Centre Airport renamed Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.

• 2010 – Corus Quay opens
• 2010 – Sugar Beach opens at foot of Jarvis Street
• 2011 – Final season of Ontario Place theme park; park to be redeveloped; some facilities remain open
• 2012 – Captain John's Harbour Boat Restaurant closes in default
• 2013 – Porter Airlines proposes jets at island airport
• 2015 – Toronto Port Authority renamed to PortsToronto
• 2015 – Pedestrian tunnel opens to island airport
• 2015 – Pan-Am Games use revitalized water channel along Ontario Place for competitions
• 2015 – Jets proposal for island airport is cancelled after Canadian federal election
• 2017 – Google's Sidewalk Labs announces multi-level government partnership, through Waterfront Toronto, to develop Quayside; plans were later abandoned by Google in 2020.

Areas

Western waterfront

Etobicoke Creek forms the western border of the city of Toronto dividing it with neighbouring Mississauga, and its portion of the Lake Ontario waterfront. The Etobicoke section of the lakeshore is mainly privately owned with parklands and public lands. The neighbourhoods north of the lake are the former villages of Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch, developed as suburbs of the original city. While in close proximity to the lake, these areas are also just to the south of the industrial belt surrounding the CNR rail line. Notable sights on this part of the waterfront include the lakeshore campus of Humber College, housed in a historic former asylum, and Humber Bay Park, and large park at the outlet of Mimico Creek. Both these sites have marinas. More parkland along the lakeshore is being built with the goal to extend the waterfront route of Martin Goodman Trail as far west as Long Branch.

The western border of the old city of Toronto (with Etobicoke) is marked by the Humber River. At the waterfront, this river is crossed by the prominent new Humber Bay Arch Bridge. From the Humber to Jameson Avenue in the east is the Sunnyside area of waterfront parklands and recreational uses. Adjoining the waterfront to the north is the large High Park. The Swansea, Roncesvalles, and Parkdale older neighbourhoods are north of the waterfront in this area.

East of Jameson Ave, the waterfront area is home to Exhibition Place with Ontario Place just to the south on three artificial islands. This area is also the former site of Fort Rouillé, one of the first European settlements in the region.

Toronto Harbour

To the east of Exhibition Place begins a long stretch of former commercial and industrial areas that are rapidly being converted into some of Toronto's most expensive residences and condominiums. Historic commercial structures such as the

Between York and

East of Yonge Street running to Cherry Street is a stretch of area known as the East Bayfront, centred on the Parliament Street slip. Currently a mix of warehouses and brownlands it is slated for development in the near future. Corus Quay is the first building to be built in the district as part of a public-private partnership led by TEDCO. It is expected that, in the next few years, thousands of new residences and millions of feet of commercial space will be built in this area. South of this, on two large projections separated by a ship canal, is the still-operating portion of Toronto Harbour which includes docking facilities for both freight and cruise ships.

The

To the east of Cherry Street and the Inner Harbour is another area that is partially industrial and partially abandoned known as the

The Beaches

East of the Portlands begins the well-known Beaches area of Toronto. This part of the city is named after the series of four connected beaches that lie along this section of the lakeshore. The western boundary of this region was once home to the Greenwood Raceway. The racetrack was demolished in the 1990s and a new residential neighbourhood was constructed in its stead. The eastern boundary is the R. C. Harris Water Treatment Plant, still the source of much of Toronto's water supply and also a prominent Art Deco monument.

Eastern waterfront

The

East of Highland Creek is Port Union, named after a port facility that existed there from 1832 to 1873. The community was centred on the Adams Creek which was the site of a local ship builder who worked for the local merchants in the area which also had a winter harbour up the mouth of the Rouge River Valley. The little harbour disappeared in the late 1870s with the arrival of the Grand Trunk Railway. The railway built a causeway, as part of a bridge project, filling in part of the river, irreversibly changing the mouth of the Rouge River, negatively impacting the local environment. Remedial efforts began in 2001 to reverse the changes in the local environment, although the bridge and causeway remains. East of Port Union is West Rouge, Toronto's easternmost neighbourhood. The eastern terminus of Lawrence Avenue is situated near the southeast portion of West Rouge's waterfront.

The easternmost portion of Toronto's waterfront forms a part of

Waterfront revitalization has been a hot topic of debate in Toronto for decades. In 1972, the federal government established the "Harbourfront Project" which converted part of the central waterfront from industrial uses to cultural, recreational and residential uses. Harbourfront Centre and Queen's Quay Terminal are legacies of that revitalization effort. In 1999, a task force was established to develop recommendations and a business plan for revitalization.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, following the recommendations of the task force, the federal, provincial and municipal governments established the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation (now known as Waterfront Toronto), to lead and manage the renewal of Toronto's waterfront. The three levels of government committed $1.5 billion to launch the redevelopment initiative. Waterfront Toronto is overseen by a 13-member government appointed Board of Directors.

Waterfront revitalization is concentrated on Toronto's central waterfront, an area that extends from Dowling Avenue in the west to Coxwell Avenue in the east. The revitalization of Toronto's waterfront is one of the largest urban redevelopment project currently underway in North America with 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of largely underutilized, derelict land located steps away from Canada's largest financial and cultural urban core. Full revitalization is projected to take 25 to 30 years and an estimated $17 billion in public and private funds to complete.

According to Waterfront Toronto's master plan, once fully developed, Toronto's waterfront will include 40,000 new residences (20% of which will be affordable housing), 40,000 new jobs, new transit infrastructure and 300 hectares (740 acres) of parks and public spaces.^{[citation needed]}

Waterfront Toronto's plans identify public accessibility to the waterfront and the development of parks and public spaces as major priorities. A variety of waterfront public space projects have already been completed by the organization including York and John Quay Promenades, improvements to Cherry Beach, the Western Beaches Watercourse, Marilyn Bell Park improvements and expansion of the Martin Goodman Trail from Marilyn Bell Park to Ontario Place and the completion of phase one Port Union Waterfront Park. The first phase on construction of the Central Waterfront and Mimico Waterfront Park were completed in summer 2008.

The first new neighborhoods to be developed by Waterfront Toronto are the East Bayfront and West Don Lands. These lands are now rezoned as mixed use developments. Based on plans developed in consultation with public stakeholders, these environmental communities will feature green roof tops, pedestrian-friendly streets, extensive parks and public spaces, affordable housing, public transit within a five-minute walk of all residences, schools, childcare and recreation facilities.

Site preparation activities and phase one infrastructure are currently underway in East Bayfront and West Don Lands. Waterfront Toronto launched the developer selection process for the East Bayfront in March 2008 and announced Urban Capital Property Group/Redquartz Developments as the first phase developer partner for the West Don Lands in April 2008.

Central Waterfront Innovative Design Competition

The Toronto waterfront has seen at least 15 design charettes over the last 65 years, the most recent being the Innovative Design Competition for the Central Waterfront that took place in 2006. This charette was won by a team led by West 8, a landscape architecture and urban design firm from Rotterdam, in joint venture with DTAH (du Toit Allsopp Hillier), a Toronto architecture, landscape architecture and urban design firm.^[5] The proposed design includes a wide promenade along the water and extensive green space. Bridges and WaveDecks rising from the boardwalk and spanning the ends of the slips will provide continuous public access to the lakeshore. Additionally, the southern half of Queens Quay will be turned into a pedestrian walkway.^[6] The proposal also emphasizes the need for stronger north–south connections between the harbour and the downtown core. The first phase was to be completed by 2008. As of January 2008, no such work has been undertaken, but private developers began construction of a condominium complex at the foot of Yonge Street, and TEDCO started construction of Corus Quay.

Major issues

• Some see the Gardiner Expressway, a raised highway that runs just north of the lakeshore, as a major obstacle to waterfront redevelopment. The highway is often seen as both a physical and psychological barrier for pedestrians that separates the city from the lake. Proposals call for the highway to be replaced with an at-grade level 10-lane thoroughfare or burying it (tunnelling), but implementation of any such plans would be extremely expensive and would entail massive traffic disruptions. Others claim that the railway lines just north of the Gardiner are the real barrier, and still others see the condominium towers built along the waterfront in the 1990s and 2000s as either a barrier, or contributing to the separation.
• The Portlands Energy Centre is a recently approved natural gas electrical generating station, which has met with large-scale local community opposition.
• The island airport generates both strong opposition and strong support from different groups both inside and outside the city, and was a major issue in the 2003 municipal election. Opposition by residents prevented the building of a bridge, but the Government of Canada paid a CA$35 million out-of-court settlement to the affected parties, part of which may have helped launch Porter Airlines. In 2015, there were plans to lengthen the airport runway and to allow jet aircraft.
• Renaturalization of the Don River mouth. The lower Don Lands are planned to be "renaturalised" and the surrounding flood plain area, including the downtown core, will be flood-proofed by building a berm (a plan that was first proposed in the early 60's by City Planner Eric Arthur). There is currently an environmental assessment underway on this proposal which was waived by the Province. Ecologists are calling for a return to the lacustrine marsh that existed in Ashbridges Bay prior to extensive land filling done from the late 19th century on.
• The needs of existing recreational stakeholders. For over thirty years, several sailing, rowing, and windsurfing clubs have been using the area east of Cherry Beach and south of Unwin Avenue. These volunteer-run clubs, comprised collectively of up to 2,000 members, have spent many years building up physical and recreational infrastructure which would be difficult to replicate elsewhere.

See also

• List of Toronto parks
• PortsToronto
• Toronto waterway system
• Waterfront Trail
• Toronto Waterfront Marathon

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Toronto waterfront.

• City of Toronto – Waterfront Revitalization
• Toronto Port Lands Company

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