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With Rob Ford\u2019s executive committee set to view brother Doug\u2019s plan to transform the Port Lands into an up-market playground, I\u2019d like to add a pair of counter-narratives to the fractious debate about the latest twist in the waterfront revitalization soap opera<\/a>.<\/p>\n Counter Narrative 1:<\/strong> Contrary to Doug Ford\u2019s assertions about the ineffectiveness of Waterfront Toronto, the fact that deep-pocketed investors have come \u2018a calling confirms the agency has been doing something right. But typically, the brothers are too blinded by partisanship to understand the dynamic that led Westfield to their doorstep.<\/p>\n Had they bothered to do their homework, the brothers would have discovered that in the past two or three years, WT has begun seriously marketing the waterfront to international developers, reeling in the likes of the Hines Company in Texas, a globally-active multi-billion-dollar building conglomerate that has signed on to develop a 1.5 million sq.-ft mixed use on the East Bayfront.<\/p>\n But besides issuing RFPs to the international property market and conducting their own dog and pony shows, WT has consciously put the word out through a far-flung network of architects, planning advisors, economic consultancies and financial advisors. Indeed, if the Fords knew anything at all about development \u2014 which they clearly don\u2019t \u2014 they\u2019d realize that WT has cleverly exploited Ontario\u2019s cumbersome regulatory approvals process to effectively pre-market the wide array of waterfront opportunities to a lot of very well-connected people.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Want proof? WT\u2019s meticulous work on the West Donlands \u2013 precinct planning, soil remediation, flood control protection, public space development \u2013 has allowed Infrastructure Ontario to go to the international development industry to find partners capable of building the 10,000-unit PanAm Games athlete\u2019s village. A quick scan of the membership of the three shortlisted groups should confirms that interest in Toronto\u2019s waterfront projects is coming from well beyond Bay Street.<\/p>\n In short, Westfield (the Australian shopping mall developer) and as-yet unnamed office builders are washing up on our shores because of, not despite, WT\u2019s spadework. Broadly speaking, these investors are seizing at opportunities that did not exist previously. More specifically, the mall developer wants to be in the Port Lands because it knows that within a few years, there are going to be an awful lot of people (customers) living very close by. So let\u2019s give credit where credit\u2019s due.<\/p>\n Counter Narrative 2:<\/strong> Contrary to the many critics that have dumped on Doug Ford\u2019s scheme, WT\u2019s development strategy for the Lower Donlands is hardly perfect, even though it offers an ecologically enticing vision for repairing the mouth of the river.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something distinctly Arcadian about the vision developed by Michael Van Valkenberg Associates, which inserts an meandering, bucolic estuary amidst neighbourhoods developed on new promontories on either side of the naturalized river mouth. Besides complaining about the cost \u2013 WT estimates that the project would cost $634 million, not including soil remediation expenses \u2013 Ford argues that this plan wastes prime real estate that could be put to better use as\u2026a mall. According to the images leaked to The Globe and Mail last week, the new \u201ctown centre\u201d would be situated at the east end of the proposed estuary.<\/p>\n The cost issue is something of a red herring: WT will recoup the infrastructure expense with medium density development and elevated real estate values on land in the immediate vicinity of the estuary.<\/p>\n But one can ask legitimate design questions about the Van Valkenberg plan that has formed the basis for the Don mouth environmental assessment, which is currently awaiting approval from the Ontario government.<\/p>\n \u2022\tDoes it promote circulation on the Port Lands or will the proposed configuration create traffic snarls of the sort that now cripple the Concord rail-lands neighbourhood west of Spadina?<\/p>\n \u2022\tWhere are the commercial zones? After all, at-grade retail in condo buildings rarely provide a full range of local amenities.<\/p>\n \u2022\tAnd while WT officials always talk in terms of mixed-use, will the plans for the area promote office-type development or other employment uses appropriate to the setting? Let\u2019s not forget that when Robert Fung launched the original vision for the Port Lands in 1999, in the context of an Olympic bid, he saw it as an economic development zone modeled on London\u2019s Canary Wharf.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, I\u2019d say the sneering counter-reaction to the Ferris wheel proposal is more a function of the Fords\u2019 great talent for polarization than a reasoned response. The waterfront is an absolutely legitimate venue for a high-profile tourist attraction, and always has been \u2013 think the CNE, Ontario Place in its heyday, Sunnyside, the original Maple Leaf ballpark at the foot of Bathurst, the islands…. Indeed, a Ferris wheel makes way more sense than the ridiculous Rochester fast ferry scheme advanced when David Miller sat in the mayor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n So is a compromise vision possible?<\/p>\n Absolutely.<\/p>\n But what happens next is tremendously important, because if the Fords believe the right thing to do now is to jettison all the work done to date and edit WT out of the process, they\u2019re going to set back the revitalization efforts by a decade.<\/p>\n As I report in this morning\u2019s Globe and Mail, much of the EA \u2013 nine years and $19 million in the making \u2013 may need to be redone, which won\u2019t happen quickly or inexpensively. Even if the Fords do get their regulatory ducks in a row before the next election, a development application for a big Port Lands mall will almost certainly be challenged at the Ontario Municipal Board. And lest they didn\u2019t know (or weren\u2019t paying attention during the briefing), the OMB nixed a similar plan by Home Depot at the foot of Cherry Street several years ago, which means there\u2019s legal precedent for rejecting low-density-parking intensive uses near the water\u2019s edge.<\/p>\n In other words, the brothers Ford are poised to inadvertently signal to the international development community that political uncertainty continues to batter the long-contested shores of Lake Ontario. Which, of course, means those worldly builders will continue to look elsewhere for opportunities, and nothing will continue to be accomplished.<\/p>\n photo by Wylie Poon<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"