M II A II R II K
Apr 23, 2012, 4:47 PM
Toronto seeks a new chief planner; what it needs is a visionary
Apr 20 2012
By Christopher Hume
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Read More: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1164606--hume-toronto-seeks-a-new-chief-planner-what-it-needs-is-a-visionary
How curious that a city such as Toronto, one growing so fast its skyline changes weekly, would have no chief planner. Since March, when the last man to hold that position, Gary Wright, retired, Toronto has made do with an acting chief planner, Gregg Lintern, a respected department veteran who has worked downtown and in Etobicoke. But a search is underway, and the city is casting as wide a net as possible. “We’re looking across North America,” explains deputy city manager, John Livey. “We’ve had a good response. It’s a great job.” That’s all excellent, of course, but we’ve gone through this before, had our hopes raised only to be dashed.
- Even without Rob Ford in the mayor’s chair, the chances of attracting the brightest and best are slim. Keep in mind that the chief planner reports to a deputy city manager, not the mayor, an indication that the process isn’t one we value particularly. Still, what’s unfolding now on the waterfront and in Regent Park represents planning as thoughtful and intelligent as any seen here in recent years. Both are projects in which the city can take pride. But then one drives up to Eglinton and Laird, where SmartCentres has turned an old industrial wasteland into a tarted-up suburban shopping mall. The results are depressing and predictable in equal measure, not to mention wildly inappropriate for a city in need of density.
- When the same developer tried to bring Walmart to Eastern Ave. several years ago, all hell broke loose. When the Ontario Municipal Board finally killed the scheme, people cheered. But outside the downtown core it seems no one gives a damn. Let the sprawl continue. Let the malls go up. Bring on the parking lots. With a few exceptions, mostly cosmetic, what’s going up at Eglinton and Laird now could have been built a generation ago. The east side of Laird and the south side of Eglinton are obvious casualties, but so is the larger neighbourhood. This sort of thinking never added up, but today it’s more than half-a-century out of date. Knowing what we know, not only does it not make sense, it’s needlessly self-destructive. Yet few seem to care.
- The debate about putting the LRT underground in this part of the city couldn’t have been more misguided. What would be the point? When new transit does arrive, above-grade or below, it will connect with a parking lot. Meanwhile, an unfortunate 75-storey tower Tridel and Build Toronto want to put on a tiny sliver of land downtown at York and Harbour Sts. has been excoriated by the Waterfront Design Review Panel for the banality of its architecture and how little it would bring to the public realm. The potential for any sort of public realm at Eglinton and Laird has been all but destroyed. Its fate, in a city the most ignominious of all, is to have ended up a parking lot. Meanwhile, developers can still count on zoning approved 30, even 40, years ago. Though everything else might have changed, rules from a different era still apply. In 21st-century Toronto, there’s no room for such sloppiness.
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Apr 20 2012
By Christopher Hume
http://static.thestar.topscms.com/app_themes/standard/images/common/thestar_logo.gif
Read More: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1164606--hume-toronto-seeks-a-new-chief-planner-what-it-needs-is-a-visionary
How curious that a city such as Toronto, one growing so fast its skyline changes weekly, would have no chief planner. Since March, when the last man to hold that position, Gary Wright, retired, Toronto has made do with an acting chief planner, Gregg Lintern, a respected department veteran who has worked downtown and in Etobicoke. But a search is underway, and the city is casting as wide a net as possible. “We’re looking across North America,” explains deputy city manager, John Livey. “We’ve had a good response. It’s a great job.” That’s all excellent, of course, but we’ve gone through this before, had our hopes raised only to be dashed.
- Even without Rob Ford in the mayor’s chair, the chances of attracting the brightest and best are slim. Keep in mind that the chief planner reports to a deputy city manager, not the mayor, an indication that the process isn’t one we value particularly. Still, what’s unfolding now on the waterfront and in Regent Park represents planning as thoughtful and intelligent as any seen here in recent years. Both are projects in which the city can take pride. But then one drives up to Eglinton and Laird, where SmartCentres has turned an old industrial wasteland into a tarted-up suburban shopping mall. The results are depressing and predictable in equal measure, not to mention wildly inappropriate for a city in need of density.
- When the same developer tried to bring Walmart to Eastern Ave. several years ago, all hell broke loose. When the Ontario Municipal Board finally killed the scheme, people cheered. But outside the downtown core it seems no one gives a damn. Let the sprawl continue. Let the malls go up. Bring on the parking lots. With a few exceptions, mostly cosmetic, what’s going up at Eglinton and Laird now could have been built a generation ago. The east side of Laird and the south side of Eglinton are obvious casualties, but so is the larger neighbourhood. This sort of thinking never added up, but today it’s more than half-a-century out of date. Knowing what we know, not only does it not make sense, it’s needlessly self-destructive. Yet few seem to care.
- The debate about putting the LRT underground in this part of the city couldn’t have been more misguided. What would be the point? When new transit does arrive, above-grade or below, it will connect with a parking lot. Meanwhile, an unfortunate 75-storey tower Tridel and Build Toronto want to put on a tiny sliver of land downtown at York and Harbour Sts. has been excoriated by the Waterfront Design Review Panel for the banality of its architecture and how little it would bring to the public realm. The potential for any sort of public realm at Eglinton and Laird has been all but destroyed. Its fate, in a city the most ignominious of all, is to have ended up a parking lot. Meanwhile, developers can still count on zoning approved 30, even 40, years ago. Though everything else might have changed, rules from a different era still apply. In 21st-century Toronto, there’s no room for such sloppiness.
.....