Jennifer Keesmaat
City of Toronto Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat spoke to a large gathering in the William Lea Room Monday night on matters affecting Leaside. In a quite wide-ranging overview of municipal planning, she noted the decision to permit and encourage “intensification” (or high-development) in what is known as the Laird Focus Area. LFA was a creation of the Eglinton Connex of 2013 which envisions Eglinton Ave and its attached thoroughfares in light of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The community has seen the evidence of development — conforming and otherwise — in the proposal to build four towers (two of them 33 and 34 floors) at the corner of Eglinton and Brentcliffe. There is much undeveloped land both west and east of this site. The focus area extends down Laird to the low-rise commercial and industrial structures of previous decades. Ms Keesmaat said LFA will require completion of the Leaside Traffic Area Study, promised but not delivered in 2013. She said 2016 will be a busy year in which the traffic study and the Laird Focus Area will proceed together.
TRAFFIC STUDY
The Chief Planner spoke of her view of how the traffic study ought to apply what she called operational solutions. She referenced the use of signage and, in some cases, one way streets to prevent “the penetration of traffic through the neighbourhood.” Leaside, said Ms. Keesmaat, was particularly susceptible to such penetration. She referenced neighborhoods west of Yonge Street as examples of where signage prevents rush hour traffic from crowding streets. Such operational solutions might result in “a few minor inconveniences on your own roads” but the benefit of keeping traffic off the roads is typically quite substantial. (A simple “operational solution” may be seen next door to Leaside in Moore Park where for many decades signage has prevented rush hour traffic and sometimes local residents from entering).
MANY IDEAS PRESENTED
Overall, Ms Keesmaat offered a wide number of planning considerations ranging from neighborhood inspired “templates” to be employed by planners through to Heritage Districts. Leaside is on a track of undetermined speed toward this status thanks to former Councillor John Parker. Heritage District status places the most formal restrictions on change and is viewed variously in Leaside. Some wish to have it to save the character of Leaside while others view it as an unwelcome burden on property values. The Planning Town Hall was organized by Councillor Jon Burnside (Ward 22). The notion of testing in some democratic form the extent of support for heritage controls remains undiscussed — Ed.
Jennifer Keesmaat addresses Planning Town Hall
