Toronto’s enormous $1.25 billion Port Lands Flood Protection Project is giving the city a re-naturalized Don River mouth and creating a new artificial island in the process.

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The project will entirely reshape the Lower Don Lands area, unlocking former industrial lands for new development opportunities. However, areas of the city to the north will also be primed for transformation by this massive infrastructure undertaking.

According to Waterfront Toronto, the flood protection works will unlock 240 hectares (593 acres) of “prime land for development.”

The Don River’s current floodplain covers an area that stretches well beyond the Port Lands area, extending north of Lake Shore Boulevard and Eastern Avenue to include residential blocks in the South Riverdale neighbourhood.

Redirection of the river mouth to the new naturalized course being etched through the former industrial wasteland will bypass the waterway’s current abrupt right-angle terminal course through the Keating Channel, further aided by flood protection works like landforms that completely re-map floodplains in the area.

Donlands Blog:
 

• Waterfront Toronto is leading a significant transformation in Toronto’s eastern waterfront, including Quayside, plans to realign Parliament Street and extend Queens Quay East to deliver new transit, and flood protection in the Port Lands.
• Our revitalization of this area is rooted in lofty public priorities set for the waterfront.
• The plans for Quayside have been shaped by years of public engagement but the story of Quayside is still being written.
• Stay tuned to our website and Quayside Impact’s project website QuaysideTO.ca for information on upcoming public engagement opportunities.

Earlier this year we began working with Dream and Great Gulf Group, together known as Quayside Impact Limited Partnership (Quayside Impact), to realize our vision for Quayside. Together, we’ll create a dynamic, inclusive, and resilient community – a place for people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities and incomes, where residents will have ready access to the needs of daily life, like shopping, food, recreation, mobility and parks and public space.

This vision for Quayside has been shaped by deep and ongoing public engagement spanning many years. Even though a lot of work has taken place already, Quayside’s story is still being written.

Quayside is part of the larger transformation underway along the eastern waterfront, including plans to realign Parliament Street, extend Queens Quay East and deliver new transit, and flood protection in the Port Lands—one of the biggest construction projects in Canada. The construction and design you see now is how we’re executing a plan that set lofty public priorities for the waterfront.

Quayside’s Story

Building on the accomplishments in the West Don Lands and Bayside, we set out to create an ambitious plan for a next-generation sustainable community at Quayside. Through an international competition we initially selected Sidewalk Labs as an innovation partner to help us discover new ways to deliver on those ambitions. We worked with them as ideas were generated and then engaged the public on their proposal and gathered feedback.  In May 2020, Sidewalk Labs removed themselves from the project.  As we moved forward, we were committed to building on the feasible ideas and insights that came from this work and the thoughtful public discussion. 

In addition to reflecting on all the knowledge gained, we also considered how much the world had changed. The COVID-19 pandemic, growing social inequality, economic insecurity, and mounting climate crisis made us all take pause and consider what kind of world we want to be living in. 

From the beginning, one of our goals was to include Indigenous voices in the design and planning process for Quayside. As the treaty holders of the lands on which Quayside is situated, the Mississauguas of the Credit First Nation (MCFN) participated in our new competitive Request for Qualifications and Request for Proposals process to identify a development partner for Quayside.

We met with dozens of community organizations and sought feedback on updated project goals and objectives. We also formed a new Stakeholder Advisory Committee to inform the aspirations and priorities for Quayside and the requirements to be included in the competitive call for a development partner. In October 2020, a virtual public meeting was held to test our thinking and seek broader feedback on the priorities and aspirations.

The Don River Currently Flows Through A Large System Of Ravines, Watersheds And Estuaries, Then Empties Into Lake Ontario Through The Concrete Keating Channel In The Post-Industrial Port Lands.

The Don River ravine system stretches from Lake Ontario north through the city, connecting communities and habitats as it weaves its way through the urban fabric. The City of Toronto’s Ravine Strategy acknowledges the importance of this natural resource to the health of both the humans and animals that inhabit the Greater Toronto Area. It’s a major migration path for animals of all kinds and provides habitats for a diversity of wildlife, something that is critical for the city’s biodiversity.  

A hundred years ago, the river spilled out into the lake through what was the largest freshwater marsh in the Great Lakes system. Right now, the place that this significant riverine ecosystem meets the lake is the Keating Channel in the post-industrial Port Lands.  

When a group of citizens organized a workshop at the Science Centre in 1989, healing the Don River and surrounding systems was just a dream. Now, more than 35 years later, construction is underway on a restored river valley that will bring wetland back to the former site of the Ashbridges Bay Marsh. 

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