Item - 2018.PG29.6

City Council considered Items PG29.4. PG29.5, PG29.6 and PG29.7 together.

The Planning and Growth Management Committee recommends that:

1. City Council adopt the Downtown Mobility Strategy attached as Attachment 1 to the report (April 17, 2018) from the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the General Manager, Transportation Services to guide implementation of the Downtown Plan.

2. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the General Manager, Transportation Services, in consultation with the Interim Chief Financial Officer, to undertake a Street Typology Study and report back to Executive Committee in the fourth quarter of 2019.

3. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the General Manager, Transportation Services, in partnership with the Toronto Transit Commission, and in consultation with the Interim Chief Financial Officer, to undertake a Downtown Transit Area Study and report back in the first quarter of 2020.

4. City Council direct Divisions to use the Downtown Mobility Strategy to inform future Capital Budgets.

5. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the General Manager, Transportation Services to use the Downtown Mobility Strategy to inform the review of development applications within the Downtown Plan area as follows:

a. to inform the necessary infrastructure required to support the development application;

b. to assess the potential cumulative impact of other applications and previous approvals to determine the City’s ability to secure the necessary infrastructure to support development; and

c. use planning mechanisms, including holding provisions, as necessary to ensure that growth and infrastructure needs are aligned.

6. City Council direct the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the General Manager, Transportation Services to report back every 5 years with updates to the Downtown Mobility Strategy to be coordinated with the preparation of the City’s future Development Charges By-law updates.

This report recommends the use of the Downtown Mobility Strategy (the Strategy) to guide implementation of the Downtown Plan, while also recommending additional study work necessary to advance implementation of the actions set out in the Strategy.

Downtown is the heart of transportation activity in the City of Toronto and the surrounding region. However, it faces challenges brought about by the significant recent growth and the continued growth expected in the coming years. Downtown is Canada's largest employment cluster with over 500,000 jobs, relying on Union Station, the subway system and the surface transit network to provide access to a city-wide and regional workforce. Close to 240,000 people live Downtown, with more than 7,500 residents added annually over the past 5 years. By 2041, Downtown, together with 'shoulder areas' of South of Eastern and Liberty Village, has the potential to reach between 850,000 and 915,000 jobs.

The Downtown Mobility Strategy supports the 25-year vision, goals and policies of the Downtown Plan to address transportation needs within a growing Downtown, encompassing the 17-square kilometre area from Bathurst Street to the Don River and from the waterfront to the CP rail corridor/Rosedale Valley Road. The Strategy was prepared collaboratively with several city Divisions and Agencies, including the Transportation Services Division, the Toronto Transit Commission, Toronto Parking Authority, Environment and Energy Division, and Toronto Public Health.

The Strategy seeks to enable the growing numbers of residents, workers, students and visitors in the Downtown to travel safely, efficiently, and more sustainably, while also strengthening the city’s economic competitiveness and environmental resiliency.

It outlines a series of actions that work together with the Downtown Parks and Public Realm Plan to align infrastructure planning with long-term growth: making streets more complete, improving pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, prioritizing surface transit, and managing motor vehicle traffic and parking. The Strategy supports the implementation of the Downtown Plan by informing the Complete Community Assessment and other requirements as part of the Planning Rationale for development applications.

It also supports and complements the rapid transit network planning initiatives currently underway at the city-wide and regional scale and is informed by, and builds on, several City transportation initiatives already underway in the Downtown, such as the Vision Zero Road Safety Plan and the 10-Year Cycling Network Plan.

Moving forward, one of the two key implementation actions being recommended in this report is a Street Typology Study for key Downtown streets that should be initiated as soon as possible to help inform other actions in the Strategy. The study will use the City's Complete Streets Guidelines to help identify priority networks and key outstanding network gaps for various users and determine a range of street typologies for key Downtown streets, based on their existing and planned contexts. Street typologies are intended to be a starting point in the 'complete streets' design approach that establish key transportation and place-making priorities to inform how a street should be designed.

Downtown streets have many different and competing roles, characters, and functions and an individual street may even have different typologies along its length, reflecting the diverse surrounding context of each segment. A street's typology may also change over time, as the city changes and evolves.

It is not feasible to expand or widen Downtown streets, so it is fundamentally important to understand how to better use and allocate the limited amount of right-of-way space available on our streets to achieve the long-term transportation and public realm city-building objectives of the Downtown Plan.

There is no single way to make a street 'complete'. There are some streets in the Downtown where pedestrian improvements should be prioritized, such as providing wider sidewalks and an enhanced public realm. On other streets, cycling infrastructure should be prioritized in order to complete key gaps in the cycling network. And on some streets, motor vehicles play an important role providing a range of functions including personal transport, emergency response, service delivery, goods movement, and curbside activity.

The other key implementation action being recommended is to undertake a Downtown Transit Area Study to develop a long-term vision and plan for surface transit improvements needed to accommodate Downtown population and employment growth. The study will identify a range of options to improve reliability, reduce travel times, and increase ridership on surface transit routes in the Downtown, including: increasing service on existing routes, changing route structures, and adding new routes in areas of growth. It may also include exploring a range of surface transit improvements on some routes, depending on the context.

The Downtown Mobility Strategy's other recommended implementation actions will be undertaken over time, informing future Capital Budgets and Plans and aligning with other studies and work.