Planners tackle core confusion BIAs, HCDs, design guidelines, secondary plans all part of review

Robin Careless –

A new city study is underway to try to make sense of the growing tangle of Downtown planning issues.

Gregg Lintern, direct of community planning for Toronto and East York, is one of the key people working on this new study that is ambitiously titled Comprehensive in the Core.

“Comprehensive to the Core (TOCore) is looking at how Toronto’s Downtown should continue to grow, ensuring that is has the necessary infrastructure to remain a great place to live, work, learn and play,” says Lintern. “Downtown is home to about 215,000 people and is growing at a rate 4 times faster than the rest of the 416.”

Plus, he notes, “51% of the City’s export GDP is generated Downtown where over 450,000 people work.”

The study—instigated by city hall earlier this year and helmed by the planning department with support from other divisions—focuses on an area bounded to the south by Lake Ontario and runs north to Rosedale Valley Rd. and the railway corridor. Bathurst St. and the Don River form its eastern and western limits.

Lintern explains, “A healthy, vibrant, celebrated Downtown is important both for people who live and work there but also for every other Toronto resident and worker across the city and the region.”

He continues, “The need to secure the continued livability of the Downtown and the competitiveness of the Downtown to attract investment, jobs, talent and visitors are paramount. The historic role of the Downtown as an inclusive place for vulnerable populations and as a place where creativity is fostered are also important.”

However, it’s not as simple as adjusting the official plan.

The Downtown area is already subject to multiple plans, such as the various city- or district-wide urban design guidelines, secondary plans, and site- and area-specific policies. Overlapping them are a myriad of heritage conservation districts and business improvement areas. TOCore has to find a way to integrate all of these elements into one cohesive strategy.

“The infrastructure ‘baskets’ we are looking at include hard and soft infrastructure: parks and public realm, transportation and transit, community services and facilities, water and wastewater,” lists Lintern. “The work will also include a review of the Planning Frameworks that currently guide growth and change, looking at how these matters should be integrated in planning framework to manage growth and achieve infrastructure improvements in a coordinated manner.”

Phase 1 of the study (analyzing existing infrastructure) began in mid 2014 and will continue into 2015. Once the review is complete, TOCore will commence Phase 2, which will include drafting new designs with a targeted completion date of mid 2016. Implementation, or Phase 3, is expected to run into 2017.