Council has 'guts' despite frustration over tolls and teardowns, Toronto's chief planner says

Despite an overworked city planning department, the teardown of potentially historic buildingsand the scrapping of a road toll planthat could have paid for unfunded infrastructure projects, Toronto's chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat is optimistic about where the city is headed.

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"We're a bit tough on ourselves in Toronto," she told Matt Galloway on CBC Radio's Metro Morning. "But we are making progress, we really are."

She shared two reasons to look on the bright side when it comes to Toronto's direction.

Teardowns of historic Toronto buildings still uncommon

It might feel like it happens all the time a developer rushes to demolish a building that has been earmarked for heritage designation.

In 2012, it was a Victorian mansion on Wellesley. In 2015, it was Stollery's, the hundred-year-old store at Yonge and Bloor. Most recently, it was the 110-year-old Bank of Montreal building near Yonge and Eglinton.

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But Keesmaat said these examples are the exceptions, not the rule.

"In general this simply doesn't happen in the city. There's not a lot of developers who see a heritage building and say, I know the city identified this as heritage... but screw it, I'm going to tear it down."

Keesmaat acknowledges having just two planners working on listing and designating heritage buildings in the city makes it difficult to get ahead of fast-moving developers.

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But she points to achievements like the Garden District, bordered by Queen, Yonge, Carlton and Sherbourne streets and recently declared a heritage conservation district, as evidence that the city is taking positive steps when it comes to saving treasured areas and buildings.

City Council is 'bold'and is ready to act

"Torontonians should be heartened by the leadership of council in this term," said Keesmaat.

Mayor John Tory, she said, did a "hard thing" by pushing forward on the road toll plan, which would have put $2 tolls on the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway.

Though the plan was nixed by Premier Kathleen Wynne in late January, Keesmaat said the fact that it got as far as it did shows that council has "guts" and is ready to act.

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She's looking forward to big projects coming down the pipe.

"Council has been bringing forward a series of bold initiatives," she said. "Rail deck park is bold and visionary and council overwhelmingly supported [it.] For decades there's been an effort to get the Bloor bike lanes off the ground. This council did it."

Keesmaat is also excited about the King Street pilot project, which will look to improve the clogged stretch of King Street between Dufferin and River streets. She said city council will make a decision about the pilot project in July.

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