JOINT STUDY ON WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT IN ASIA AND PACIFIC 1996
JOINT STUDY(with the CANADA) REPORT
Toronto, Canada
Mr. David A. Carter
Deputy Commissioner and
Chief Operating Officer
Waterfront Regeneration Trust
THE REGENERATION OF THE LAKE ONTARIO WATERFRONT
Introduction
This presentation describes two of the projects for the regeneration of the Lake Ontario waterfront in which the Waterfront Regeneration Trust is involved.
The first, the Waterfront Trail, is regional in scope. Its purposes are to regain public access to the lake and stimulate environmental remediation and community development.
The second, the Roundhouse Park development, is one of several current large-scale public/private investments on the Toronto central waterfront. It symbolizes the changing economic uses of that waterfront from the port/rail emphasis to a broader mix including tourism, entertainment, trade, residential and parkland uses.
Before discussing the projects however, there is a brief review of the port's history and an explanation of the origins and role of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust.
Evolution of the Port of Toronto
Some Canadian coastal cities such as Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal depend heavily on their ports, but this is not the case in Canada's largest metropolitan city Toronto, situated on the shore of Lake Ontario. It's port function is small and getting smaller, but other waterfront uses are expanding.
Toronto's Harbour Commissioners, organized by federal statute in 1911, had grand port plans; and they always had a vision of the waterfront that was broader than just the port.
Their 1912 plan, which shaped the central waterfront, provided for parkland and recreation as well as port, railyard, warehousing and industrial uses; and later in the 1930's an island airport.
Along with the railways the Harbour Commissioners became the dominant presence on the central waterfront for more than 60 years. As they implemented their plans they filled in the lake whenever they felt the need for more land so that by the 1980's more than 2,000 hectares in new land forms swept around the bays and out into the lake.
