A recently unveiled plan for a massive new waterfront community paints a picture of a bustling neighbourhood with housing, cycling infrastructure and a car-free plaza, but some worry Premier Doug Ford’s push for jets flying in and out of the Toronto island airport could threaten that vision.
The city plans to build the Ookwemin Minising island neighbourhood from scratch on industrial lands formerly known as Villiers Island, now home to Biidaasige Park. In 2024, the development was projected to house 15,000 people.
But in an updated report shared with the city’s planning and housing committee Thursday, that’s gone up to 21,000 people across 12,000 units, with the possibility of up to 3,000 of them being affordable housing.
“It’s rare that an urban municipality like ours gets a whole new neighbourhood,” Gord Perks, chair of the committee, said at Thursday’s meeting.
The updated plan comes after council directed staff to find ways to add more density to the neighbourhood in December 2024. The vision for the area, according to a design presentation shared with the committee, is to incorporate the Asnishinaabe worldview that each new trail is a dialogue between humans and nature.
“Ookwemin Minising will become a neighbourhood where climate resilience, thriving ecosystems and human well-being are not just promises — but part of everyday life,” the presentation reads.
The plan and various planning amendments related to it were approved by the committee Thursday and will now go to council.
‘All these plans could be shattered’: Matlow
But there are concerns the neighbourhood depicted in the idyllic renderings could be changed, both in form and living experience, as Ford promises jets will fly out of the island airport to its west.
The plan envisions 20 buildings on five blocks, including five tall towers between 25 and 41 storeys. At a committee meeting in April, Coun. Josh Matlow directed staff to develop a report studying the potential impact of an expanded flightpath on the city’s waterfront development ambitions, including on building height.
“All these plans could be shattered…if all of a sudden a unilateral edict from above at Queen’s Park just dismantles all these years of good planning,” Matlow said at the committee Thursday.
Jason Thorne, the city’s chief planner, told Matlow the present plans were developed under the current flightpath requirements for the airport. Thorne also said the city’s planning department hasn’t seen any plans for jets flying out of the airport, despite the premier repeatedly stating it will happen.
He told reporters after the meeting that the tallest buildings in the plan are already in certain locations because of the existing flightpath.
“We haven’t seem any of what the plans are going to be for Billy Bishop, so it’d be premature to say what the response might be,” he said.
CBC News asked the province if its plans for the airport will have any impact on the development’s plans. A spokesperson for the premier’s office said it stands by comments he previously made to the media on the topic, directing CBC News to an April 16 news conference.
At the news conference, the premier was asked more broadly about his plans for the airport and spoke generally about the economic benefit of allowing jets to land there.
A car-free street
Thorne said the goal is for residents to start to move onto the island in the early 2030s.
The development presents a fresh vision of urban planning for a city whose central waterfront is blanketed by the hum of a freeway: a central street with no cars, called the centre commons.
The centre commons will be a community space covered in tree canopy flanked by a mix of building heights. It’s designed to prioritize human movement and interaction, with vehicle access only anticipated for emergency responders.
Thorne said that space offers a counterbalance to the density of where the neighbourhood’s inhabitants will live.
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“The residents of these buildings will be able to go out their front door into greenspace,” he said.
Thorne said that means parents and kids will be able to walk to a recreation centre without being next to a road filled with moving cars.
“That’s really trying to get at the, how do you make a dense neighbourhood really liveable and really vibrant?”
While the neighbourhood will have several streets with car traffic, two of them are being designed as one-way routes to “minimize pavement area devoted to vehicles.”
There will also be zero on-street parking, according to the design presentation. Every street in the development will have cycling infrastructure.
The area will also be served by the recently funded Waterfront East LRT.