Keating Channel set for residential makeover

By Kimberly Spice —

Revitalization plans for the Keating Channel and the Lower Don Lands will transform current industrial wastelands into a vibrant community with water edge promenades, bridges and small watercraft access.

Plans for the revitalization and urbanization of the easternmost Harbourfront area were revealed during a news conference at the Waterfront Toronto Offices May 7.

“This is not an optional project for the redevelopment to the city of Toronto,” Waterfront Toronto chair Mark Wilson stated. “We have to create a piece of infrastructure that deals with the flooding issue and the protection of the port lands and the areas in the east—to bring flood control, urban design, renaturalization and building communities together into what we think is a model for sustainable neighbourhoods.”

The first section of the revitalization project will transform the Keating Channel area into a variety of residential dwellings, parks and green spaces along with access to the channel for small recreational vehicles such as canoes and kayaks.

“Ecological urbanism” is a main criterion of the development process.

“Our sustainability goals for energy are quite aggressive,” stated Michael Van Valkenburgh, principal of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc. “We are attempting to create a condition of what’s called a net plus, where through the collective things that we do, we will actually try and create a condition in the port lands that begins to compensate for some of the conditions that exist elsewhere in Toronto and the rest of North America.”

Plans include resurrecting part of what use to be the largest wetlands on the Great Lakes, destroyed by industrialization infilling, which began in 1914. This will aid travel weary migrating birds crossing Lake Ontario on their way to the boreal forests in northern Ontario. An innovative use of street and building rainwater runoff will sustain the wetlands in addition to watering trees lining the streets.

“We need to harvest and help the overall ecology by collecting the runoff from the roofs and streets and use those to water the street trees and create the wetlands,” said Van Valkenburgh. “Through passive collection of water, not pumping water and not using city water, is the beginning of our approach to creating this area to be ultimately sustainable and ultimately working either towards carbon neutrality or a net reduction in carbon, based on how this neighbourhood is created.”

The use of solar and wind energy, geothermal and lake cooling techniques are some of the ecological carbon reduction planning ideas.

More information at www.waterfronttoronto.ca.