City’s waterfront info leaves you in the dark

City’s waterfront info leaves you in the dark

⋅ Community Engagement, Waterfront ⋅ No comments

I was recently talking to a neighbor about the city’s willingness to allow highrises in the Old Lakeshore Road area on our waterfront, which would take out almost all the heritage buildings.

“Why didn’t I know about this?!” she said.

It’s a comment we receive a lot at this website. But if you’re looking for answers, you won’t find many from the city. Thanks to you raising concerns and speaking out, the city has posted a “Vision for Old Lakeshore Road” on its website. The city also issued a press release on design guidelines for the area – a full month after council passed them – largely because you’ve made this an issue.

But the documents leave out key information about what council has approved for the area (read them on our ‘media and resources’ page).

“Extensive” waterfront consultation consists of 2 meetings + 62 people

“Extensive” waterfront consultation consists of 2 meetings + 62 people

⋅ Uncategorized ⋅ No comments

Those of us raising concerns about development on Old Lakeshore Road on our waterfront that would add highrises and take out heritage buildings, have been told the public was already “extensively consulted” – and that no consensus emerged.

Consultation went “above and beyond” what the Planning Act requires, we have been told, although the Act sets the bar so low it’s hard not to exceed it.

But I wanted to learn more about what the city had done to ask residents their vision for this area of our waterfront. So last week, I spent almost two hours with Downtown Coordinator Jody Wellings, and Downtown Planner Marianna Iglesias. Both were extremely helpful in answering my questions and providing background information. I greatly appreciate the time they spent.

What I discovered, though, was shocking. Not only is there a consensus to preserve heritage and not put up tall buildings, the “extensive” public consultation consisted of two meetings.