Planning on the edge

Our city planner Al Rezoski is overwhelmed with projects and still takes time to inform YQNA and ask our opinions. Yet, even an outsider can tell that the City’s Planning Department is in jeopardy.

More than 200 large buildings are in the planning stages downtown and 39,000 homes – mostly condos – are in the pipeline. To shape and guide these developments, the downtown Planning Department has three planners and a temporary chief planner in place of Ted Tyndal, who is on sick leave. Three planning jobs are open, but even when they are eventually filled the department is a shadow of its former self.

YQNA’s Planning and Development Committee has grave concerns about the many building projects in our area. The new co-chairs, James Russell and Bob Rasmussen, wrote a letter to Mayor David Miller with copies to all City Councillors, pleading with them to restore funding to the Planning Department to usher in the biggest building boom in Toronto’s history. We await their replies.

NEW PLAN FOR COMMUNITY

The Queen’s Quay Harbourfront Business Improvement Area (QQHBIA) held a meeting on September 13th at Harbourfront Centre to launch its ‘Strategy for the Transformation of Queen’s Quay.’

The meeting was attended by twelve planning students in their final year at Ryerson University and their Associate Director and Professor, Mitchell Kosny, MRCP, Phd. Also attending were representatives from Harbourfront, the QQHBIA, Bathurst Quay Neighbourhood Association, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood Association, York Quay Neighbourhood Association, and Waterfront Action. Local business representatives included Ms. Chinyere Eni, Branch Manager of the Royal Bank of Canada, located in the Queen’s Quay Terminal Building and Kevin Currie, of Wheel Excitement. Our HarbourSide resident, Braz Menezes, who conceived the project, also chaired the meeting.

At the meeting the students were given a list of priorities and then asked to prepare a strategy for the economic and physical transformation of Queen’s Quay over the next few years. There will be a mid-session review of the student’s work near the end of October. They will present their final report in December of this year.

While the Ryerson students are working on their strategy for our neighbourhood, five University of Toronto students will be looking at the impact that condo tower congestion has on our lives, both physically and socially.

Thanks to Braz, and the QQHBIA, Ryerson University and the University of Toronto for helping to get their project off the ground. We are all looking forward to receiving the student’s final presentation.

Christmas Lights 2007 from QQHBIA

The 2007 kick-off display has it’s home on the Firehall in the new HTO Park. The display includes rope lights on the north and east face of the building, a firetruck made out of LED’s and
cascading snowflakes on the tower. It’ll be beautiful!

Our final installation for 2007 is our 22 foot holiday tree. It will reside on the second their, beveled corner of the Westin Convention Centre right at Bay and Queens Quay. Join us for a hot beverage at HTO Park on Sunday November
18, 2007 and celebrate our Kick-off 2007 Kick-off. Don’t forget to bring your old strings of lights. TABIA and Toronto Hydro will be on hand once again to exchange your old lights for brand new, energy efficient LED”S.

For full story and QQHBIA news update click here