OPS Campaigns: Rethinking Ontario Place
Public meeting attracts capacity audience
and fresh ideas on the future of Ontario Place
February
6, 2013
(TORONTO) A public
meeting Monday evening at the University of Toronto attracted a
capacity audience of more than 125 people and imaginative new ideas
on the future of Ontario Place.
“Ontario Place has been left behind but we
can’t go back and re-create it,” said Rita Davies, an urban planner
and former head of Culture for the City of Toronto. “The
possibilities for Ontario Place are boundless but however it changes
it must be thoughtfully done.”
Monday’s meeting at Innis Town Hall
presented the recommendations that grew out of a Dec. 1 design
charrette at which design and landscape
architects, urban planners, futurists and others gathered to imagine
what Ontario Place might be now that it has been shut down by the
provincial government, and how it may serve the social, economic,
academic and cultural needs of Toronto and Ontario.
The December design
charrette was organized in response to the recommendations of
a special advisory panel, chaired by former Conservative MPP John
Tory, which called for the development of condominiums and a hotel
on almost half the land on which Ontario Place currently sits.
Participants at that meeting unanimously rejected the idea of a
casino at either Ontario Place or the adjacent Exhibition Place
.
Twelve recommendations for the future of
Ontario Place were tabled at Monday’s meeting. They include:
-
Revitalization must include consideration of the entire
length of the waterfront from Ontario Place to the Toronto islands;
-
Make Ontario Place a centre for
research, innovation, conferences and entrepreneurship;
-
Create three nodes of activity (business, culture and natural
environment) in a zero carbon community;
-
Leverage the architectural heritage of the current site;
-
Restore the original Forum amphitheatre
and make Ontario Place a hub for music entertainment;
-
Bring Toronto’s passion for food from all cultures to Ontario
Place;
-
Stop planning for a casino at Exhibition Place;
-
Connect Exhibition Place and adjacent
neighbourhoods like Liberty Village to Ontario Place through
improved public transit, cycling and pedestrian pathways;
-
Engage neighbourhoods to the
north of Exhibition Place to Ontario by inviting residents to become
involved in future planning of both sites;
-
Re-establish Ontario Place as a gateway to the city and
create a softer relationship with the waterfront;
-
Slow down the planning process for the future of Ontario
Place and Exhibition Place;
-
Think big and imaginatively and pay
close attention to the long-term economic impact of reinventing
Ontario Place as an iconic public space.
Monday’s meeting featured a total of seven
expert panelists. They unanimously agreed that improving public
transit to the site is imperative to re-developing Ontario Place as
a public space.
“In all the talk about transforming the
place (by the government) where is there any mention of public
transit. I don’t go there because I can’t get there by transit,”
said one of the panelists, Toronto Star urban affairs columnist
Chistopher Hume. He also told the
audience that the redevelopment of Ontario Place should be taken out
of the hands of Queen’s Park and the city and be left with
Waterfront Toronto, the public agency responsible for the future
planning of the lakefront.
The December design
charrette and last night’s meeting were organized by the
Martin Prosperity Institute (University of Toronto), the Design
Industry Advisory Committee and the Ontario Public Service Employees
Union (OPSEU).
“We’re in it for the long haul,” said OPSEU
president Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “Whatever final form it takes
Ontario Place must be a place for all the people of Ontario and not
just for John Tory and his Bay Street friends.”
A final report from the design
charrette will be released to the public
shortly.
To learn more please visit:
www.rethinkingontarioplace.com
or follow the conversation on Facebook at:
www.facebook.com/saveontarioplace
