However, in Toronto the waterfront development corporation concept did not succeed.
A government inquiry (The Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront) therefore recommended a different form of organization - a coordinating body. Therefore the Waterfront Regeneration Trust was established in 1992, and has since operated along the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario from Kingston to Niagara (a distance of 500 kilometres serving a population of 4.5 million). In some respects the Waterfront Regeneration Trust and WAVE are similar. Both focus on good planning and on bringing waterfront stakeholders together.
The six Japanese waterfronts viewed during the joint-study program are very impressive.
They demonstrate that Japanese planners and builders are using similar principles to those being employed on the Toronto (Lake Ontario) waterfront; a mix of uses combining opportunities to live, work and play; provision for waterfront public access including parks and open space; protection of views and vistas; attention to the environment; and an overall regard for waterfronts as special places where air, land and water meet.
Each of the six is developing its own distinctive identity, shaped by the powerful influences of geography, design and functional specialization. As well, identity is expressed through the design and construction of landmark buildings that take history, culture and the future into account.
Public bodies - the local port authorities, local governments, and the national government - have large roles in the planning and development of these waterfronts, coordinated by WAVE; although room is provided for private enterprise.
In Toronto, by way of contrast, the roles of the senior governments are diminishing, as they focus their energies on restructuring and restoring financial order. The roles of reformed municipal government, and more significantly greater scope for private sector energy and enterprise are being expanded. It will be the private sector (from local business to international business) that becomes the primary engine of waterfront development as Toronto moves into the 21St century, within a framework of principles laid out by the Waterfront Regeneration Trust.
As they continue their preparations for entering the 21st century Japanese waterfront planners may wish to consider adding the following ideas to their inventory of solutions;
｡. more opportunity for small scale enterprise and development to complement the larger scale;
ii. increased emphasis on the integration of their waterfronts into the surrounding cities, particularly through the provision of infrastructure"; and
iii. additional amenity and beauty by naturalizing the hard edges of land reclamation schemes where possible and appropriate, to reflect Japan's natural
