Visions for the Metropolitan Toronto waterfront, I. Toward comprehensive planning, 1852-1935

Originally prepared as part of a heritage report for the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Department.This paper provides a general overview of waterfront-centred or -related planning in the Toronto area during the period 1852-1935. Plans were brought forth to resolve a host of problems and to take advantage of opportunities along the lakeshore and in the regional watershed. While these challenges were often considered in isolation, over time the planmakers adopted a more comprehensive outlook. The topics discussed here include the struggle between the railways and other interests on and near the inner harbour; proposals to develop several major public properties on the waterfront; the systematization of municipal hard services; the emergence of a local planning movement and the development of general schemes for civic improvement; and the creation of a new public port authority, the Toronto Harbour Commissioners (THC), and the nature and evolution of its 1912 plan. The THC's plan was the most ambitious and comprehensive effort of its time. Yet, while it represented a crucial point of departure in the local planning culture, it was thoroughly conditioned by the proposals which preceded it. In turn, the visions of the THC and the other plan-makers set important precedents for later regional thinking and the waterfront activities of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto