The Globe and Mail - November 06, 2004

Look east, and watch the Gardiner disappear

By: John Lorinc


Call it either a whopper of a half-measure or Toronto's rendition of the classic Canadian compromise.

But a proposal to tear down the eastern portion of the Gardiner Expressway, roughly from the Don River to Jarvis Street, may prove to be the elusive solution to the long-standing impasse that has stalled efforts to rid the downtown of its elevated eyesore and kick-start waterfront redevelopment.

The Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., which released its five-year development strategy/governance reform package last week, is now putting the finishing touches on a plan that would replace that stretch of the Gardiner with an eight-lane surface boulevard. It's an idea on which Mayor David Miller campaigned during last year's municipal election. Ramps built along the south side of the railway embankment south of Front Street would connect the thoroughfare with the Don Valley Parkway.

City of Toronto transportation officials and TWRC adviser Michael Kirkland expect the plan to be unveiled at council later this fall. Sources say the scheme is now being tested in a high-tech traffic simulator at the University of Toronto.

Mr. Miller won't say much about the proposal, but says he would back the plan -- which effectively continues what was begun in 2001, when the city demolished the elevated spur of the Gardiner that extended to Ashbridge's Bay -- if it were affordable and made sense from a transportation perspective.

"My view," the mayor says, "is that the most important place to address the Gardiner is where the redevelopment is going to happen."

The TWRC says that's the East Bayfront, a 36-hectare area that extends from Jarvis Street to Cherry Street, and from the lakeshore up to the rail corridor. That land is the proposed site of an ambitious, European-style waterfront community with 1,500 homes, including 300 units of affordable housing. It's currently dominated by car dealerships, soundstages and indoor tennis clubs, all of which sit in the shadow of the Gardiner.

The plans call for a dense urban neighbourhood of mid-rise buildings, public spaces, marinas and a cultural facility for the foot of Yonge. TWRC officials said last week that they want to complete the East Bayfront development by 2007. The new plan for the Gardiner "will have a very positive effect on the East Bayfront," predicts architect Jack Diamond, who proposed a similar idea about 15 years ago. "I'm really pleased the TWRC is looking at this option. Whether there's money and will is another issue."

For the past two years, the debate over the future of the Gardiner has see-sawed between two starkly different, and intensely controversial, configurations.

One is a complicated $1.8-billion proposal that involves demolishing the Gardiner from the CNE, in the west end, over to Cherry Street, near the port lands. The expressway would be replaced with a complex network of broad boulevards and buried sections, with ramps linking the surface and subsurface roads.

The other option -- devised by a pair of well-respected Toronto architects -- leaves the elevated highway in place but aims to "beautify" it. Various ideas for improving the appearance of the underside include removing several off-ramps, shifting Lake Shore Boulevard out from underneath the Gardiner and developing warehouse-style buildings below the expressway.

Proponents of demolition believe that removing the crumbling structure would eliminate a huge psychological barrier and trigger waterfront redevelopment.

In the spring of 2003, however, city council balked at approving the TWRC's $20-million request to conduct an environmental assessment on the demolition option, and instructed the agency to spend a year fine-tuning the alternative.

None of these ideas can see the light of day, however, until the city, Queen's Park and Ottawa complete their "governance review" of the TWRC, which nearly went bankrupt this year. The development corporation -- jointly controlled by the three levels of government and armed with a mandate to redevelop large swaths of the city's waterfront -- currently operates under highly restrictive provincial rules that prevent it from buying and selling land or issuing debentures to finance projects. The TWRC officially released its reform proposals, plus a $224-million menu of parks and housing projects, last week. The formal review by the three levels of government is expected to be completed later this fall. Only then will detailed proposals for the Gardiner, and other major waterfront projects, be released.