Deputation to City of Toronto, Executive Committee of Council,

Tuesday, 2 June, 2009

Reference Reports EX33.18

QUEENS QUAY REVITALISATION ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT STUDY

Mr. Mayor and Councillors, Thank you for this opportunity to speak on behalf of the York Quay Neighbourhood Association (YQNA).

I have been the Chair of the Planning Committee of YQNA from 2005 thru 2008, and Chair of the Area Planning Committee of the Queens Quay BIA from January 2007 to March of 2009. In these capacities I have therefore actively participated at numerous stakeholder meetings, public meetings and events. I am a professionally qualified Urban Planner and a resident of the Waterfront.

We congratulate Waterfront Toronto and City Staff for their efforts, reflected in this Report. The level of public participation and discussion throughout has been extra-ordinary.

But the Central Waterfront is not a neighbourhood issue. It is the core of Toronto’s waterfront infrastructure and will shape tourism returns for the economy, and the social image of our city for decades to come. So the bigger vision for the future must not be compromised.

The provisions in the report are reasonable and adequate in our opinion. They deal with the outstanding concerns raised by QQHBIA and other stakeholders, to permit progress to the next step.

We urge the Executive Committee to support in their entirety, the four recommendations of the Deputy City Manager, as set out on page 2 of this report, that:

• Waterfront Toronto issue the Completion Notice and file the ESR in the public record for 30 days;
• City Staff and Waterfront Toronto study the North-South connection west of Rees Street;
• The Curb Management Plan and a Waterfront Bus Management Plan are completed, as an integral part of implementation of revitalisation of Queens Quay
• City Staff be authorised and directed to act to give effect to the above.

Mr Mayor and Councillors, we wish to raise three issues arising from this report, for your consideration:

1. Bringing more pedestrians to the waterfront;
2. Creating an exceptional interface between the City’s financial district and the revitalised Waterfront.
3. Expanding the study of the north-south connection west of Rees Street.

This is the most exciting project in Toronto in at least a quarter of a century. Please let’s finish it properly. Let the economic and social benefits start flowing now. Let millions of people come via transit to Union Station, and walk two blocks to the waterfront.

Just imagine walking through Toronto’s world-famous PATH system to a Waterfront Entrance to Union Station located on Queens Quay.

Just imagine exiting the PATH into a small but spectacular park, where the two ugly down-ramps have disappeared. You took this decision in June 2008, to re-engineer the down ramps off the Gardiner at York Street, and to allocate funds to implement demolition and reconstruction.

There is only a short stretch of the PATH remaining to be completed. Since 2005, Councillors Pam McConnell & Adam Vaughan, and Al Rezoski, Acting District Manager of Planning in East York Toronto, have successfully negotiated the PATH extension through Maple Leaf Square, now nearing completion. YQNA was a primer mover of this initiative, with the support of Harbourfront Centre and the Queens Quay BIA.

If funds are an issue, we believe that Waterfront Toronto should give priority to completing the PATH access to Queens Quay; instead waterfront Toronto should defer construction of the proposed bridges that link the boardwalk, over the various slips. A simple cost-benefit evaluation will confirm this as a ‘no-brainer’.

The PATH will encourage increased usage of transit to Unions Station, especially on weekends, and will offer substantial operational and capital savings to TTC. Thousands of people will not stretch TTC’s streetcar capacity for travel trips over just two stops, especially to Harbourfront Centre and the Toronto Island Ferry Docks, the principal destinations now.

An exit from PATH into the ‘Park’ will give visitors their first view of the Lake. For their return journey it will be the ‘Waterfront Entrance to Union Station’. It will connect the city’s Financial and Entertainment District to the Central Waterfront. It will complete an interrupted PATH route from Nathan Phillips Square to the Waterfront, and mark another historical landmark in city building, a fitting legacy for your Administration.

Mayor Miller and Councillors, we want to address a third issue in connection with the study of a proposed north-south link opposite the fire station. We urge that Waterfront Toronto and City Staff also prepare a plan for more effective utilisation of the existing car-park, to perhaps combine high-value commercial real estate for the hospitality and retail trade on the south frontage; and much expanded car-parking, with access directly from Lakeshore East. This is consistent with the concerns raised by the QQHBIA in reference to the need for coherence and consistency in the design for the north side of Queens Quay.

To conclude, Mayor Miller and Councillors, please let’s finish the Central Waterfront well. Let’s include hitherto missing components mentioned above.

We urge the Executive Committee to support in their entirety, the four recommendations of the Deputy City Manager, and include studies for the components discussed above, so that the benefits of investments made after years planning and procrastination can be fully achieved.

We urge both the Executive Committee and Council as a whole, to make a speedy decision.

Queens Quay Neighbourhood Association.

Deputation read by Braz Menezes, 2512/55 Harbour Square, Toronto, M5J 2L1