VISIONS FOR THE METROPOLITAN TORONTO WATERFRONT, II: FORGING A REGIONAL IDENTITY, 1913-68 Wayne C. Reeves* Major Report No. 28 Originally prepared as part of a heritage report for the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Department *Department of Geography University of Toronto Centre for Urban and Community Studies University of Toronto April 1993 ISSN: 0316-0068 ISBN: 0-7727-1365-0 $10.00 ABSTRACT This paper provides a general overview of waterfront-centred or -related planning in the Toronto area during the period 1913-68. In 1912, the Toronto Harbour Commissioners brought forward the first comprehensive plan for the Toronto waterfront. The second such plan - radically different in scale and character was unveiled in 1967 by the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto. In the intervening years, efforts to forge a regional identity had taken place on several fronts. The topics discussed include the advocacy of a metropolitan political unit before World War II; the City of Toronto's master plan of 1943; the creation of inter-municipal planning boards and other regional authorities prior to 1953, and the preparation of physical plans by these organizations. Their proposals thoroughly conditioned the work of Metropolitan Toronto after its formation in 1953. For Metro, the waterfront provided the crucial setting for a vastly expanded regional infrastructure, including sewerage and water supply facilities, expressways, and regional parks. Attempts to develop a conservation strategy for the lakeshore were also made, propelled in part by the lobbying of community groups. The regional waterfront's importance was underscored when Metro initiated a comprehensive planning process in the early 1960s. The content of and responses to Metro's 1967 plan, and Metro's involvement with other waterfront ventures through 1968 (when Council adopted the plan), are also examined here. PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work is based on a heritage study commissioned in 1991 by the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Department for its new Waterfront Plan. Visions for the Metropolitan Wateifront: Planning in Historical Perspective (February 1992) reviewed the genealogy of planning ideas in and for the Toronto region, from the onset of the railway era in the 1850s to the adoption of Metro's first Waterfront Plan in 1968. The objective of Visions was to provide background information on the emergence and changing character of Toronto-area planning, so that Metro's staff could situate their ideas in a long tradition of envisioning the waterfront. The first half of the original study, dealing with the period 1852-1935, comprises Major Report No. 27 of this series; the second half, which brings the story up to 1968 (after returning to 1913 to examine Metro's institutional origins), appears here in revised form. Visions complemented another heritage study that I prepared for Metro. Regional Heritage Features on the Metropolitan Wateifront (December 1991; revised and published by Metro in June 1992) identified regionally significant structures, sites, and areas on the Metropolitan lakefront and in the lower river valleys. In this discussion of development on Metro's past and present waterfronts, note is taken of what actually materialized from some of the plans and proposals outlined in Visions. Plans and proposals are not the conventional stuff of "heritage," though an enlarged sense of the field is emerging. To this end, I would like to thank Lynn Morrow at Metro Planning for initiating the study, and Glenn Miller and Pamela Leach for seeing it through to completion. Visions, however, had its genesis in a paper presented at "Toronto's Changing Waterfront: The Built and Unbuilt Environment," a workshop held in 1990 at the Centre for Urban and Community Studies. I am grateful for the comments tendered by the workshop participants, and for the support of the organizers, Roy Merrens, Michael Moir, and Judith Kjellberg Bell. The assistance given by the staff of the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library (particularly the Metro Urban Affairs Library), the City of Toronto Archives, the Toronto Harbour Commission Archives, several University of Toronto libraries (Architecture, Engineering, Government Documents, and Robarts), and the Canadian Waterfront Resource Centre was invaluable. I am especially indebted to Michael Moir of the Toronto Harbour Commission Archives and Ted Relph and Jim Lemon of the University of Toronto for their advice and for reviewing the present manuscript, and to Judith Kjellberg Bell of the Urban Centre for seeing it to publication. The errors and interpretations remain my own. WCR CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 INSTITUTIONALIZING THE REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE, 1913-53 2 Local and Provincial Initiatives Before World War II 2 Toronto's 1943 Master Plan 9 Regional Authorities Take Shape 14 ENVISIONING THE METROPOLITAN WATERFRONT, 1953-68 24 Expanding the Sewerage and Water Supply Systems 24 Toward a Network of Expressways 29 Building a Regional Parks System 42 Conservation Planning in the Metropolitan Watershed 57 The Regional Waterfront as a Planning Unit 72 Metropolitan Toronto's 1967 Waterfront Plan 82 Responses to the 1967 Plan 94 Metro's Involvement with Other Waterfront Ventures 103 RETROSPECT &PROSPECT 115 BIBLIOGRAPHY 126 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ACPC Advisory City Planning Commission CAC Civic Advisory Council, Committee on Metropolitan Problems CNE Canadian National Exhibition CNEA Canadian National Exhibition Association CNR Canadian National Railway COA Canadian Olympic Association CPAC Community Planning Association of Canada, Greater Toronto/Toronto Region Branch CPR Canadian Pacific Railway CPSBH Committee for the Preservation of Small Boat Harbours CTA City of Toronto Archives DVCA Don Valley Conservation Authority EDJPC East District Joint Planning Committee ETPB Etobicoke Township Planning Board GTA Greater Toronto Area HVCA Humber Valley Conservation Authority UC Inter-Island Council MTARTS Metropolitan Toronto and Region Transportation Study MTPA Metropolitan Toronto Planning Area MTPB Metropolitan Toronto Planning Board MTPD Metropolitan Toronto Parks Department MTRCA Metropolitan Toronto and Region Conservation Authority MTRD Metropolitan Toronto Roads Department OAA Ontario Association of Architects OALA Ontario Association of Landscape Architects ODPD Ontario Department of Planning and Development OGTA Office for the Greater Toronto Area OISE Ontario Institute for Studies in Education OMB Ontario Municipal Board OPPI Ontario Professional Planners Institute ORMB Ontario Railway and Municipal Board OWRC Ontario Water Resources Commission PPA Project Planning Associates Ltd. QEW Queen Elizabeth Way RLUT Robarts Library, University of Toronto RCFTW Royal Commission on the Future of the Toronto Waterfront RDHP Rouge River-Duffin Creek-Highland Creek-Petticoat Creek TACPAC Technical Advisory Committee on Parks and Conservation TCPB Toronto City Planning Board TCR Toronto-Centred Region THC Toronto Harbour Commissioners TSPB Toronto and Suburban Planning Board TTC Toronto Transit Commission TYPB Toronto and York Planning Board 1 INTRODUCTION "During the two years that it has been my good fortune and privilege to occupy the Mayor's chair, I have had ample time to realize that the successful administration of so great a city as Toronto involves not merely an intimate knowledge of municipal affairs, but also of metropolitan problems." Thus G.R. Geary opened his inaugural address to Toronto City Council in 1912. 1 Geary later resigned in mid-term to become Corporation counsel, though "metropolitan problems" likely had little to do with this unusual move. Nonetheless, issues of regional growth and development were increasingly on the City's agenda in the early 20th­ century. These issues gave rise not only to a wide array of physical plans, but also to the discussion of new institutional and planning arrangements for the Toronto area. The development of regional organizations and metropolitan planning in the Toronto area during the period 1913-68 is an important focus of this study. The drive to reorganize existing municipalities into a single political unit, and to define an appropriate physical context in which to plan and deliver various hard services, took decades to mature. After some 30 years of debate, several new public agencies were formed in the late 1940s to address large-scale concerns. The forging of a regional identity quickened in 1953 with the creation of the Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto and the Metropolitan Toronto Planning Area. While Metro was a novel entity both in Toronto and North America, its activities were much conditioned by earlier plans and proposals. Metro's work after 1953 embraced and furthered a local planning tradition which sought to address problems and opportunities comprehensively and on a regional basis. 2 In all this, the waterfront had a crucial role to play. Many of the most important elements of Metro's new physical structure - water filtration and sewage treatment plants, expressways, and parks - were positioned there by the late 1960s. Increasing the utility of the waterfront was a constant Metropolitan objective after 1953. The lakeshore's special character was noted in Metro's 1959 draft Official Plan and given prominence in its 1967 Waterfront Plan. The 1967 plan and the Toronto Harbour Commissioners' (THC) 1912 plan represent the most comprehensive waterfront visions ever brought forth for the region. Metro's jurisdictional mandate and territory allowed it to vastly expand the THC's sense of scale,