Item - 2018.PG29.9

The Planning and Growth Management Committee:

1. Directed the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in consultation with the Acting General Manager, Toronto Water to use the Downtown Water Strategy attached as Attachment 1 to the report (April 17, 2018) from the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning and the Acting General Manager, Toronto Water to guide implementation of the Downtown Plan.

2. Directed the Acting General Manager, Toronto Water to use the Downtown Water Strategy to inform the 2019-20 Capital Budget.

3. Directed the Acting General Manager, Toronto Water and the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to use the Downtown Water Strategy as a reference to review 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.

This report recommends the use of the Downtown Water Strategy to guide implementation of the Downtown Plan.

The Downtown Water Strategy (the Strategy) identifies infrastructure improvements that are required to accommodate population and employment growth in the Downtown. 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. The Downtown, and the South of Eastern and Liberty Village areas have the potential to reach between 850,000 and 915,000 jobs by 2041.

Toronto Water utilizes a comprehensive process to program capital works projects that ensure a state-of-good-repair and service level enhancement for its infrastructure.

Toronto Water is also incorporating the impacts of future growth to 2041 in its infrastructure studies to identify additional infrastructure improvements to be considered in its capital works program, so that infrastructure capacity is available to support future growth.

The Strategy recognizes challenges associated with the limited space available in the City's road allowance to accommodate additional infrastructure as well as capacity constraints imposed by groundwater infiltration and wet weather flows. A number of aligned initiatives, including those related to energy and resilience, are addressed in the Downtown Water Strategy to ensure integrated planning and implementation.

To ensure growth is supported by the timely provision of infrastructure, the Downtown Plan is further supported by four other infrastructure strategies:

-Downtown Parks and Public Realm Plan
-Downtown Community Services and Facilities Strategy
-Downtown Mobility Strategy
-Downtown Energy Strategy
 

These five strategies set priorities for infrastructure investment, and guide implementation of the Downtown Plan, which encompasses a 17-square-kilometre area from Bathurst Street to the Don River and from the waterfront to about the CP rail corridor/Rosedale Valley Road. Each strategy outlines a series of transformative ideas and actions intended to align infrastructure planning with long-term growth. 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.

Implementation of the Downtown Water Strategy will be undertaken through the capital works program of Toronto Water, informed by several infrastructure studies that are currently underway.  Investments in water-related infrastructure to address capacity constraints associated with growth, as set forth in the Downtown Water Strategy, will be reported out to City Council through the individual projects and implemented through the capital works program of Toronto Water.  Toronto Water and City Planning will work together to prioritize projects that resolve capacity deficiencies and to identify where development may need to be held until the servicing improvements to support growth are implemented. Monitoring of development and growth trends will inform adjustments to the implementation of projects in the capital works program.