Skip to content

Spacing

Canadian Urbanism Uncovered

Waterfront

Sneak a peak at (what might be) Lake Ontario Park

By

Read more articles by

Last night I went to the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation’s Lake Ontario Park Public Forum expecting the half-full room of journalists and senior citizens that usually makes up the audience at these events. I arrived a little late and was surprised to see the room packed to the rafters, complete with ornery people squeezing in at the doorways. A large part of the audience was composed of members of the Outer Harbour Sailing Federation, who made it clear in the Question Period that they were concerned about losing private property to public development.

Just prior to the Question Period landscape architect James Corner presented an hour-long proposal for Lake Ontario Park with a 91 page slideshow (22 megs PDF), now available online from the TWRC’s website (its filled with artist rendering goodness). It’s an ambitious and impressive plan, and you can read Christopher Hume’s take on it on The Star’s website here. A workbook (443k PDF) is also available from the TWRC’s website, which asks for feedback on the proposal and suggestions for improvements. If you have any interest in the project it’s well worth your while to have a look at the presentation and get your feedback to the TWRC before January 31. The next TWRC meeting is about the Central Waterfront and is scheduled (PDF again) for next Tuesday, January 23, at the Radisson on Queen’s Quay.

Image from the Toronto Star.

Recommended

8 comments

  1. I would encourage everyone with an interest in this posting to have a look at the slideshow on-line. The clarity and depth of the presentation is very impressive; most interestingly, I love the quote of the park as “heterogeneous, unfiltered by design”. I am going to try to make it to the next presentation because it seems like a very interesting project.

  2. The waterfront public meetings seem to always be a big draw — they should start booking larger rooms!

  3. The clubs of the Outer Harbour Sailing Federation aren’t concerned about “losing private property” — the clubs lease their land from the city year by year. Some of them have been moved in the past to accommodate the city’s whims, and will be moved again under this plan. It’s more a question of how the design of the park is going to be able to integrate sailing clubs that require some level of secure water access and dry boat storage with a public walkway and beach at the same location.

    Everyone (the city, the TWRC, the park designers) says that they want the clubs to stay where they are, and the clubs have nothing against the concept of public access to the water, but right now, those two goals seem to operate in opposition to one another. A solution is going to have to be fairly creative to work for everyone involved; anything less will diminish the experience of all involved.

    The solution presented at last night’s open house was neither creative nor very practical: it would involve putting chain link fencing along the north side of the beach to separate the club lawns (where the boats are stored) from the public access areas. As a pedestrian, it would be an ugly sight. As a sailor, it would greatly complicate the process of launching boats, perhaps to the point of making it impractical. Try to imagine a landlocked sailing club and you may understand what they’re worried about.

    The designers say that they are aware of the issues and don’t yet have the answer — this is actually a good thing. The bad thing is that the trial balloons they floated last night were less than inspiring.

    All that said, I walked away from the meeting quite pleasantly surprised by the concept and scope of the plan. Inspired, almost. There are going to be a few trouble spots that will require more thought, but it definitely has the potential to be a tremendous addition to the public realm. Assuming the politicians ever allow it to be built, of course.

    (Full disclosure: I’m a member of one of the OHSF clubs, but I don’t speak for them.)

  4. Thanks, Val. I wasn’t trying to paint the OHSF as NIMBYs – I spoke with a few of the members when the room got too packed and they were very impressed with many aspects of the proposal. We agreed there were definitely a few areas that needed work, but had to remind ourselves (as the presenters kept reminding everybody) that what was present were ideas, not set-in-stone plans.

  5. Re: Sailing clubs. It’s posts like Val’s, above, that are so helpful for this debate. As I experience the waterfront most on a bicycle I have tended to resent those patches of waterfront that are reserved for club members of one sort or another – especially when they seem like bad neighbours (like the Boulevard Club on Lakeshore).

    So, I was completely ready to respond poorly to her post, but it was so reasonable and brought up so many good issues that all of a sudden I’m ready to listen. Great post.

  6. The smaller sailing clubs are pretty harmless.

    If any waterfront freeloader should be displaced, it’s the RCYC, which occupies two entire islands of the island archipelago at below-market rates. They should either pay the real cost or be evicted. It would be a nice little addition to the Island park system.

    In all the debates over the Island residents and their land tenure, or for that matter the airport, the RCYC is never discussed – it really should be. Any organization which charges up to $18,000 as an initiation fee doesn’t need a break on rent from the City.