Design, consultation work by Toronto agencies continues on massive Port Lands housing developments

Many of the houses and apartments in South Riverdale have been around for decades, but in two communities in the area, where homes never existed, are now under development.

The area around the Port Lands has changed drastically in recent years including the expansion of the Don River and bringing nature to a previously paved-over part of Toronto.

Jed Kilbourn, Director of Development Planning with Waterfront Toronto is helping lead the efforts of developing what is now a massive island. “It’s one of these dream projects that you get to work on that really engages with with the city as a whole,” said Kilbourn.

“Villiers Island is going to be home to about 15,000 people. So we’re looking at about 9,000 units,” he added.

The vision is long-term with a 20 to 25-year plan for the island. “We’re aiming to have the first units being occupied in 2031.”

With that many people in what is now an industrial area, it means filling a lot of needs.

“There’s going to be a school, a library, a community center, all of these things that would help build a complete community,” Kilbourn shared.

The work to date has been focused on minimizing flooding as consultation continues. There’s also a call for designs to build the sustainable infrastructure needed to support it all.

“We lead with landscape … We’d love to see more timber. A lot of it has to do with planting strategies, looking at more opportunities to harness rainwater more opportunities for passive irrigation, really prioritizing active transit and pedestrian and pedestrian mobility,” he shared.

Kilbourn said the name “Villiers Island” is just a placeholder and consultations on renaming the area as well as many of its public spaces will occur at some point in the future.

A second community nearly as large, dubbed the McCleary district, is also planned for the area just southeast of where the Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway meet.

Scott Pennington is Vice-President of Port Lands Management with CreateTo, the agency responsible for managing and developing city lands.

“Very rarely do you find an opportunity like this of this scale that is primarily under public control or public ownership,” said Pennington. “This is all kind of uncharted terrain”

While it’s currently mostly brownfields, 5,000 to 6,000 units will be added. Early renderings sparked some criticisms about streets being too wide and lack of density. A public meeting on the plan is set for September 18.

“We want to make sure that this is as compact a development as we possibly can, but also ensure that we’re preserving enough space for all the uses,” said Pennington.

It also needs to accommodate nearby film studios.

Pennington and Kilbourn both tell CityNews the developments could have 20 to 30 per cent of the units designated as affordable housing.

“We recognize that there’s a housing crisis,” said Kilbourn. “We want … to make sure that the communities that we’re building can adequately address that crisis.”

Another question remains about the congestion expected to get worse when all these new residents move to the area.

The Ontario Line, currently under construction and expected to completed in 2031, will have stops nearby including East Harbour and Riverside-Leslieville.

With files from Meredith Bond