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Reinventing the Suburbs Mega mixed-use projects set to transform GTA by Erin Ruddy The Greater Toronto Area is in the midst of a major growth spurt, with estimates from the Ontario government predicting a population increase of 50 per cent over the next 25 years. With international migration driving this rapid expansion, and the growing technology sector spurring a broader business boom, developers and planners have been busy seeking viable, long-term solutions to accommodate the unprecedented growth.
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n June 5th, the Urban Land Institute hosted a webinar featuring successful “mega mixed-use projects” currently underway. Looking at transit, employment, health care, education, community facilities and general infrastructure, the panelists presented their master plans for a full spectrum of highdensity housing. “Explosive growth in the GTA has been contained within an ecological greenbelt,” said moderator Rob Spanier, President of Spanier Group and Chair of the Advisory Board at the Urban Land Institute, Toronto District Council. “To accommodate the more than 100,000 new residents per year and the associated economic expansion, municipalities in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Areas have been advancing the development of their urban centres in a way that will ultimately deliver a series of vibrant edge cities.” Ken Greenberg, urban designer, teacher and principal at Greenberg Consultants, spoke of the Greater Golden Horseshoe, presenting a vision for a multi-centered region leveraging mass transit infrastructure expansion. From Markham to Vaughan, Brampton to Oshawa, Toronto’s satellite cities — once considered
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auto-dependent suburban communities peppered with strip malls and dormant manufacturing facilities — are now being reimagined as “work, live, play” destinations with vibrant downtown cores of their own. And at this point, it appears not even the novel coronavirus can stop the momentum. “Particle accelerator” Referring to COVID-19 as a “particle accelerator, forcing us to do things in a more resourceful and urgent way,” Greenberg said the pandemic has done anything but waylay the multi-centric vision for the suburbs he and his fellow planners share. “We are in the throes of a major paradigm shift,” he said. “With immigrants and visible minorities making up over 50 per cent of our population, we need to change how we move, live, and access services. We need to move toward a more sustainable future.” But achieving that future, according to Greenberg, means boldly going back to bikes. It means planning urban centres to be walk-centric versus auto-dependent, with mass transit facilitating it all.
