TORONTO – With massive new developments being proposed for the city’s downtown core, some experts and residents are questioning whether Toronto`s infrastructure can handle the influx of people.
Details of a new development at One Yonge Street, including four residential towers measuring 70, 70, 92 and 98 storeys, leaked in the architecture blog UrbanToronto.ca Thursday.
While the plans have not yet been officially proposed to the city (and much could change in the consultation process), the large towers could add thousands of new residents to the downtown core.
A proposal by Oxford Properties Group could also transform the area.
The $3 billion development Oxford Place would encompass the area south of Front Street from Simcoe Street to Blue Jays Way and could include an expanded convention centre, new retail space, office and residential space, 4,000 new parking stalls and a hotel and casino complex.
But can the city’s current infrastructure handle such colossal construction projects?
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A Global News investigation recently uncovered hundreds of points of disrepair along the Gardiner Expressway including some areas in which a “punch-through,” a vehicle pushing a hole through the highway, is possible.
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Just blocks from the proposed developments of Oxford Place and One Yonge Street, the Gardiner Expressway is slated to undergo $505 million in repairs that were budgeted for in the proposed 2013-2021 budget.
Toronto is “a city which is beginning to really clog up in terms of the ability to easily move around,” Berridge said, noting that transit is already a problem for city planners.
The Toronto Transit Commission, along with Metrolinx, is also taking the first steps in a $16-billion project to vastly expand public transit in Toronto.
Despite increased funding to repair the crumbling Gardiner expressway and bolster public transit, residents currently living along the waterfront are worried increased congestion could occur as a result of the spike in density.
A spokesperson for the York Quay Neighbourhood Association told Global News that she is worried about the economic viability of the area as a tourist attraction when proposed developments bring thousands more people into the two block radius.
“York Street, just north of here, from Bremner… we will have 5000 new residents coming and 10,000 employees in three massive office buildings, so we are facing 15,000 people in these two blocks,” Ulla Colgrass of the York Quay Neighbourhood Association said. “Now how are they going to come and go? It’s already congested. We don’t know. I don’t think anybody knows.”
While many of those new people will take public transit, the TTC may not suffer the onslaught of commuters it otherwise would if such large developments were erected elsewhere in the city.
“On the positive side though that if you put a lot more people downtown you don’t need quite the transit system because you can walk,” Berridge said.
Colgrass is also worried about public infrastructure other than “traffic, waterways” and “hydro” but also “hospitals, schools, public spaces, amenities.”
Berridge as well says “soft infrastructure” such as parks, active streets and places for people need to be concerns not only to developers but to the city.
“We’ve got to get ahead of the game. We seem always to just be running to catch up to these proposals. The city should actually be saying ‘here’s what we want, ok developers, come in and build it,’” Berridge said. “Right now the developers are doing whatever they think makes sense, and the city is kind of playing catch-up. I think we should reverse that dynamic.”
– With files from Mark McAllister
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