{"id":32892,"date":"2012-08-16T11:54:26","date_gmt":"2012-08-16T15:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=32892"},"modified":"2012-08-16T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2012-08-16T20:23:01","slug":"improved-port-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2012\/08\/16\/improved-port-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"New plan actually improves the Port Lands"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last week, Waterfront Toronto released a revision of the plans for the Port Lands<\/a> (pictured below). The revision was part of the “Port Lands Acceleration Initiative”, which was the compromise given to Doug Ford when his original ideas for completely changing the Port Lands plans was rejected by city council. The revision also responded to complaints by existing industries using the port that their role had not been taken into account in the initial plans.<\/p>\n

While they may not be as spectacular, in terms of\u00a0making the Port Lands development a viable addition to urban Toronto the new plans<\/a> (PDF) are actually an\u00a0 improvement over the old ones.<\/p>\n

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I’ve visited a few other former waterfront industrial areas that have been redeveloped and urbanized (in Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Paris), and there are potential pitfalls to this kind of project. All of these areas were well-planned, attractive and exhibited impressive architecture. But they all felt isolated and were very quiet — not so much expansions of the city, more very nice new bedroom communities (with a few quiet offices thrown in).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The previous plans for the Port Lands (below) looked like they migh suffer the same fate – three quite isolated sets of buildings, with no obvious draw to attract large numbers of people to these new spaces, or keep them lively at all times of the day, other than parks.<\/p>\n

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One of the issues often overlooked in current ideas of redevelopment in dense “nodes” is that no community actually thrives just on its own. The parts of the city that are most lively thrive not only have a lot of local activity, but also draw from neighbouring areas and from across the city (and in turn send people to neighbouring areas).<\/p>\n

The new plans for the Port Lands address this problem in a few ways.<\/p>\n

Better concentration of people<\/h3>\n

Instead of three nodes, the new plans concentrate the new urban areas on the Port Lands into two larger sections, providing a more focused concentration of people more likely to create viable communities. These sections are, as well, intended to include commercial as well as residential buildings, which would help support a more full-day life cycle.<\/p>\n

As well, the two urban sections are closer together, meaning that it is more likely people will walk or cycle between them and they will support each other better.<\/p>\n

Setting aside space for attractions<\/h3>\n

For the Port Lands to thrive, they have to draw people from all over the city at all times of the week and all through the year. The waterfront trails with a nice view of downtown will draw some people during the summer, but they won’t be enough, and neither will the Port Lands population alone. While Doug Ford’s suggestions inspired mockery, he wasn’t completely wrong in sensing instinctively that the Port Lands needed attractions.<\/p>\n

The new plan sets aside two spaces for these kinds of attractions. There are all kinds of possibilities, some more appealing than others, but it should not be difficult to find something for prime waterfront locations. (For example, Cricket Canada is looking for a waterfront location for a stadium<\/a> — that could be a way to help the Port Lands embrace Toronto’s diversity).<\/p>\n

Accepting industrial uses<\/h3>\n

The new plan accepts and takes into account the current industry and port uses<\/a> of the Port Lands.<\/p>\n

Toronto needs jobs, of all kinds. The number of jobs within the city has not been expanding, even as its population grows. It has, especially, been losing industrial jobs. So it’s important to preserve the ones that want to stay in the city. The Port Lands are the last part of central Toronto where it’s still viable to have industry — that’s not something to throw away lightly.<\/p>\n

As well, ports are valuable, and can’t easily be replaced. Toronto owes its location to the presence of the inner harbour as a good port. While it is no longer a major port, the activity that does take place there is still valuable (2 million tonnes of cargo, mostly salt and building materials) and, if lost, there’s nowhere else on Toronto’s waterfront that port facilities could move to.<\/p>\n

Ports are also environmentally helpful. Ships use less fuel per ton of cargo than trucks or rail. All the cement shipped into the Lafarge cement works would otherwise have to be carried into Toronto in a lot of trucks, clogging highways and polluting the air. It’s even possible, if fuel costs continue to rise, that shipping of additional types goods might make something of a comeback — and we will need a working port to take advantage of that.<\/p>\n

The planning for the Port Lands has taken a long time and political effort, but it’s been worth it to create plans that have a better chance of succeeding.<\/p>\n

photo by Peter Pelisek<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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The revision also responded toContinue reading “New plan actually improves the Port Lands”<\/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":[5],"tags":[336,8466,1068,20810,522,14697,20812,470,416,20813,1504,20811,19],"class_list":["post-32892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-waterfront","tag-amsterdam","tag-building-materials","tag-cement","tag-cement-works","tag-copenhagen","tag-doug-ford","tag-lafarge","tag-paris","tag-pdf","tag-peter-pelisek","tag-port-lands","tag-port-lands-last","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew plan actually improves the Port Lands - 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\/2012\/08\/16\/improved-port-lands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New plan actually improves the Port Lands - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, Waterfront Toronto released a revision of the plans for the Port Lands (pictured below). 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