Yet what has drawn the most concern and curiosity with regards to Quayside is a uniquely 21st-century feature: a data-harvesting, wifi-beaming “digital layer” that would underpin each proposed facet of Quayside life. According to Sidewalk Labs, this would provide “a single unified source of information about what is going on” to an astonishing level of detail, as well as a centralized platform for efficiently managing it all.

Kitchen appliances switched on too long, overflowing trash bins, and high-traffic park benches could be monitored and addressed by this digital layer. So could changes in air quality and spikes in noise levels. Each passing footstep and bicycle tire could be accounted for and managed. This ocean of data could inform urban planning, research, and new software development, including a special platform by which Quayside residents could access public services.

It’s the kind of all-seeing urban omniscience that would stir the heart of any utopia builder. But to whom, and how, would this data be made available? And what would such an arrangement mean for any Quaysider who doesn’t wish to be monitored? In Toronto and beyond, the depth and details of the data collection have sparked public debate. At the first public forum on the project, and in a list of questions related to the project compiled by the journalist Bianca Wylie at Torontoist, privacy questions and fears have come up again and again.

So have issues like inclusion and access. Toronto’s affordable-housing shortage rivals that of many pricey American cities. Aggarwala asserted that, to be successful, Quayside must be home to a representative sample of Toronto’s economically and ethnically diverse population. It’s not hard to imagine affluent and digitally savvy Torontonians lining up to move into this futuristic, data-driven community. But the city could face thorny ethical issues if it wants to provide, say, subsidized housing to low-income residents. Those residents might not have a choice in how much privacy they give up to call Quayside home, even if they don’t like the terms of use. The same could be said for anyone who uses its public spaces.

It is not yet certain that Quayside will ever be built, at least not in the state currently imagined. Sidewalk Labs has committed $50 million and one year’s worth of engagement to develop a plan for execution. Either the company or Waterfront Toronto could still decide to back out, though the two partners have also formed a third entity, called “Sidewalk Toronto,” devoted to bringing the lakeside property to life.

Pamela Robinson, a professor of urban planning at Ryerson University in Toronto, wonders if that blended entity could risk blurring public and private interests during the planning process. “Both sides must perceive some value in this arrangement,” she said—she’s just not sure what that value is. (When contacted for this article, Sidewalk Toronto did not provide any comment.)