There is a proposal to build a big box Canadian Tire Store at the southwest corner of Leslie Street and Lake Shore Blvd. making its way through the approval process. The South Riverdale Community Health Centre, as part of its Portlands Partnership Initiative, is hosting a meeting tonight, December 3rd, 2003 at 6:00 p.m. to allow the residents in the area to comment on the plans for the store and redesign of Leslie Street. There will be City of Toronto planners there to present the current plans for the area.

A City of Toronto staff report was done on the project and it originally recommended against the project. You can see that report here. 1015 Lake Shore Boulevard (Canadian Tire) Final Report(PDF). Since that report has been done there have been changes to the proposal and an appeal to the OMB. Residents will be able to see what the current state of the proposal is at tonight's meeting.

Paul Young works at the South Riverdale Community Health Centre. He works with community groups on environmental and planning issues that have an impact on the health of the community and its residents. One of the groups he works with is the South Riverdale Portlands Partnership (PPI). This group focuses on the Portlands which are all the lands south of Lake Shore Boulevard between Cherry Street and Leslie Street. A description of the group is quoted below.

The Port Lands Partnership is a group of mostly local people who meet roughly every other month to:

1. track planning and development projects and milestones within the Port Lands area.
2. Publicize the milestones and development proposals with this (e-mail) list and local media.
3. When possible, convene public meetings on the above items.

He has sent out an announcement of the meeting that contains the details of the meeting and the issues up for discussion. That is quoted below.

Wed. Dec. 3, 6 - 8 PM
At the South Riverdale Community Health Centre,
955 Queen St. E. (at Carlaw)

ISSUES

• Gateway to the Leslie Spit - accommodating pedestrians and cyclists from Leslieville
• Consistency with the new landscape proposed on the east side of Leslie
• Managing car/truck traffic
• Greening "big box" rooftops
• Stormwater Management
• Setting a precedent for the Port Lands re-development

There many projects planned for the portlands area over the next few years, the Portlands Energy Centre (See previous Article), the Rochester Fast Ferry (See previous article), the revitalization of Cherry Beach, a movie sound stage at the old Hearne Generating Station, and a movie studio on Commissioners street which is currently undergoing a bidding process. All of this is supposed to be happening in the context of the Portlands Precinct Planning process as part of the revitalization of Toronto's waterfront being conducted by Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corporation www.towaterfront.ca. Unfortunately, the public consultation part of that process has not started yet. The PPI tries to ensure that residents near the Portlands and users of the Portlands have input in the decisions being made.

If you would like to get involved with this group or get on the PPI e-mail mailing list you can contact Paul Young. His e-mail address is paul@srchc•com. The web page for this group is www.southriverdale.ca

Martin Koob
tcc-rep@tbn.ca