DSCToronto said:
AFIK, the properties along Unwin are not serviced with water or sewage and that is an obvious precondition and adding a lift bridge over the Ship Channel is not going to be cheap. Even if I were much younger, I doubt I would ever see this happening!
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A lift bridge with streetcar tracks on it no less.
 
northyorker1 said:
honest question, why would anyone want to live there?
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I'll play. Given the timelines involved (and the horrendously expensive obstacles to overcome), by the time this becomes real - if it ever does - it would mean that the Portlands over by Cherry Street and Villiers Island would already have become much more built out and thriving with residential, commercial and the like. Given that, it would be reasonable to expect lots more amenities around than is the currently the case. People around the world tend to favor living close to the water and this is a prime stretch of Lake Ontario right here in the GTA.... proximity to exercise and nature on the Leslie Spit, proximity to the Lake Shore and Gardiner.... it's a far better prospect than most people would imagine. Transit, however, is an open question - and in this town, a lack of transit is becoming a real point of contention for shiny new builds.

In any case, right now? Nawww. It's pretty isolated and forlorn down there. Let's see what happens over the next decade. Cleaning up and revitalizing the Hearn would be a colossal task, requiring obscene amounts of money. But would I live consider living down there? Oh yeah, I sure would.
 
This is certainly better than I anticipated since it was announced some years ago now that the Province had sold this to Cortel without seeing other bids… but getting SvN and Partisans in on the masterplanning is really smart. No doubt there's a long way to go as this concept morphs and gradually materializes, but aiming to create a multiuse facility that preserves the Hearn's uniquely cavernous space — and introduces woonerfs — few and far between authorized electric delivery vehicles only please amidst the cyclists and pedestrians — is reassuring at this point.

HearnCyclists1280.jpg


One more Luminato in here please before it all gets made over!

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Lenser said:
I'll play. Given the timelines involved (and the horrendously expensive obstacles to overcome), by the time this becomes real - if it ever does - it would mean that the Portlands over by Cherry Street and Villiers Island would already have become much more built out and thriving with residential, commercial and the like. Given that, it would be reasonable to expect lots more amenities around than is the currently the case. People around the world tend to favor living close to the water and this is a prime stretch of Lake Ontario right here in the GTA.... proximity to exercise and nature on the Leslie Spit, proximity to the Lake Shore and Gardiner.... it's a far better prospect than most people would imagine. Transit, however, is an open question - and in this town, a lack of transit is becoming a real point of contention for shiny new builds.

In any case, right now? Nawww. It's pretty isolated and forlorn down there. Let's see what happens over the next decade. Cleaning up and revitalizing the Hearn would be a colossal task, requiring obscene amounts of money. But would I live consider living down there? Oh yeah, I sure would.
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Me too as would literally thousands of early adopters/creatives!
 
Looking forward to the waterfront lrt being scrapped and replaced with the much more expensive Cortellucci Line
 
junctionist said:
Even if this particular proposal never happens, it’s a fair assessment of where the area is headed. For all the density and destinations planned for the Port Lands, you need transit that can cover this relatively large area quickly. It needs a subway line.
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IF, anything like the planning visions approved and currently in consultation ever unfold, then absolutely a subway line is required.

A drum I've been beating now for years.

However, we can't even seem to get the WELRT off the drawing board, or the Crosstown open, so I don't think holding one's breath for a subway here would be recommended.

Preferable to down zone and holding by-law most of the land for a generation and stop wasting money on something we neither can nor should attempt to deliver until we've got a whole lot of other stuff done.
 
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Another Luminato event would be huge. Really loved what they did in 2016 and now that I have a DSLR instead of a rinky dink P&S I would love a chance to do some more photos in the space.

As for the proposal: it LOOKS fantastic. If ever it gets done, and done properly, it would be a fantastic repurposing. But I am contractually bound to be a debbie downer...
 
I like it and I am sad to hear it won’t happen.

Seems like a rule of Toronto development: any ambitious and well designed proposal will reliably never be built.
 
goodcitywhenfinished said:
I like it and I am sad to hear it won’t happen.

Seems like a rule of Toronto development: any ambitious and well designed proposal will reliably never be built.
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That is too extreme a statement.

Yes, we do have an issue with certain developers/assemblers/flippers making non-serious proposals in order to gain zoning that allows for profitable re-sale of said lands.

That's unfortunate, but easily addressable by amending provincial law in two respects.

That a rendering used for the purpose of obtaining an approval is legally binding as the final design except where otherwise approved by the applicable City Council; along with Use IT or Lose IT zoning, that means if you don't obtain permits to build within 2 years, of Zoning approval, the zoning change is automatically rescinded in its entirety.

That would spike the time-wasters.

***

As to this proposal, no one is engaging in any conspiracy against it, it simply can't be built right now (lacks servicing, lacks bridges, lacks proper road access, lacks transit access etc etc etc..

None of those things is planned to be in place in the next 10 years, nor is any funded.

Beyond that, anything is possible. But one imagines the current proponent will have long since exited with or without any approvals here. If one were exceedingly charitable, this proposal is viable in the distant future, subject to a bevy of conditions, and maybe, something here is completed in 20 years; but truthfully, as it stands, this should be called out for the deception that it is, by a landowner with no desire or resources to build what is shown, in a location not currently suited to same.

None of that is the City's fault. Its just a greedy fiction.
 
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