{"id":2404,"date":"2007-10-21T10:19:21","date_gmt":"2007-10-21T14:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2404"},"modified":"2013-01-21T14:48:51","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T19:48:51","slug":"plans-for-etobicokes-city-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/21\/plans-for-etobicokes-city-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Plans for Etobicoke’s city centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Etobicoke Civic Centre <\/em><\/p>\n

The concepts for the creation of a new Etobicoke (well, now it’s called “West District”) city centre between Islington and Kipling stations have now been released. The plans include relocating the Etobicoke Civic Centre to this area as a kind of anchor. The city will be holding public consultations about these plans at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

It’s a very important initiative. Both the city’s planning and environmental strategies are based in part around the ability to create a more urban environment in the “inner” suburbs that were absorbed into Toronto at amalgamation. Key to that strategy is to develop densely populated “downtowns” for these suburbs where residential and employment are close together and close to transit.<\/p>\n

The attempt to create such an area in North York has been mixed, to say the least. For various reasons, there are a lot of challenges to doing it in Scarborough. But in Etobicoke, there is a great opportunity — a large swath of underused land, mostly owned by the city, between the two subway stations.<\/p>\n

This is the city’s chance to show that its official plan is realistic, that its goals for the inner suburbs can actually be accomplished in a transformative manner.<\/p>\n

The various documents outlining the proposed plans (put together by a consortium of firms) are available on a City of Toronto web page<\/a>. There will be a public consultation:<\/p>\n

An open house and presentation on the consultant’s findings on the West District Design Initiative will be held on October 29, 2007, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., in the Council Chamber of the Etobicoke Civic Centre, 399 The West Mall.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My initial reaction to the plans is that they are certainly a massive improvement over the current situation (they incorporate a separate initiative, the flattening of the notorious “six points” intersection where Kipling, Bloor West and Dundas West<\/a> all meet). It will convert a pedestrian no-go wasteland into a genuine urban space full of residents and, hopefully, workers.<\/p>\n

One issue I noticed was in the version of the proposal where the new Etobicoke Civic Centre would be located at the corner of Bloor and Kipling. The plan envisages a “civic square” located in the middle of the block, cut off from the intersection by the new city building.<\/p>\n

We’ve already tried this — a public square in the middle of a block beside a civic centre — twice in recent decades: at Metro Hall, and at North York Civic Centre. Both times they haven’t worked very well, because a mid-block square is not a naturally high-traffic location. A square should be located where people travel and congregate naturally — that is, at an intersection. It would be strange and rather sad for Toronto to make the same mistake a third time in a row.<\/p>\n

I also had another response. The new plans for the intersection propose a somewhat convoluted way for Dundas West to avoid its natural route of intersecting perfectly with Bloor and Kipling (hence the “six points”). But the news that the city is looking into roundabouts<\/a> made me realize that this is the obvious location to try one, and let the three roads meet in one place as they want to. I don’t generally like roundabouts because they make pedestrian trips longer and more uncomfortable, but they are a good solution in locations where more than two roads converge at odd angles, like Six Points. If done right with a lot of thought put into it (good buildings, wide sidewalks), a roundabout can be very urban in character and reasonable for pedestrians, and it would create a real focal point and distinctive character for the new downtown — imagine a piece of striking art in the middle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Etobicoke Civic Centre The concepts for the creation of a new Etobicoke (well, now it’s called “West District”) city centre between Islington and Kipling stations have now been released. The plans include relocating the Etobicoke Civic Centre to this area as a kind of anchor. The city will be holding public consultations about these plansContinue reading “Plans for Etobicoke’s city centre”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4006,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20,6],"tags":[992,3320,37,2510,3321,7051,12,89,5740,19,496],"class_list":["post-2404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-urban-design","category-walking","tag-consultant","tag-etobicoke-civic-centre","tag-intersections","tag-metro-hall","tag-north-york-civic-centre","tag-people-travel","tag-planning","tag-scarborough","tag-the-west-mall","tag-toronto","tag-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlans for Etobicoke's city centre - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/10\/21\/plans-for-etobicokes-city-centre\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Plans for Etobicoke's city centre - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Etobicoke Civic Centre The concepts for the creation of a new Etobicoke (well, now it’s called “West District”) city centre between Islington and Kipling stations have now been released. 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