Is progressive city planning possible under Mayor Rob Ford and the current Toronto City Council?

I believe it’s not just an option, but an absolute necessity. The most immediate priority is to figure out how best to spend the $8 billion allocated by the province for transit development in Toronto, a decision that will shape our future for decades to come.

As Toronto’s chief city planner for eight years, and during my 31-year career in the city planning department, I worked with a wide range of mayors and councillors. The record shows progress was made regardless of the political leanings of those in charge.

Left-of-centre mayors David Crombie, John Sewell, Barbara Hall and David Miller were collectively responsible for the Central Area Plan, the St. Lawrence neighbourhood, City Home, the revitalization of King-Spadina and King-Parliament, waterfront renewal, transit, tower renewal and the priority neighbourhoods program.

Right-of-centre mayors Art Eggleton, June Rowlands and Mel Lastman were responsible for, among other things, embracing group homes in all residential neighbourhoods, the ascendancy of urban design and public art, the first State of the City report, Official Plan ’91, the office-to-residential conversion by-law, a new official plan for the amalgamated city and the plan for the central waterfront.

This partial list shows progressive planning is not the exclusive preserve of the left or the right. The most dramatic illustration of this occurred during the seminal debate over the future of downtown Toronto in January 1976, when the majority of council’s left wing voted against adopting the new Central Area Plan, which first introduced the idea of mixed use.

This was a huge turning point for Toronto. It produced a vibrant downtown core that is active both day and night and where more than 200,000 people now live. The reality is the plan was approved only with the support of the centre-right-wing of council, by a vote of 14-7. Crombie calls this “the centre muscle of council,” and it’s an important lesson for our present council to reflect upon as they plan the city of tomorrow.

Fortunately, a stunning opportunity to shape transformational thinking exists with the 2011 mandatory review of Toronto’s Official Plan. In my view, it is essential to tie any fixed rail transit construction to an aggressive land use intensification strategy and the expansion of the city and regional transit network.

This is especially true for subways and underground LRT lines, where strategic investment is clearly for the long term. The proposed Eglinton LRT certainly meets this test and will function as a subway for much of its length, serving communities across the city. It was first proposed in 1974 and is the absolute No. 1 priority.

Any future subway extensions must be linked directly to extensive mixed-use development that would generate 15,000-30,000 people living and or working within one square kilometre of targeted major stations. This would include the Sheppard corridor as far east as Victoria Park, in addition to existing and future stations located along the proposed Spadina subway extension.

Experience on the Yonge subway demonstrated that intensive redevelopment of both commercial and residential uses at such stations as Bloor, St. Clair, Davisville, Eglinton, Sheppard, North York City Centre and Finch were major city-building opportunities that helped to make the Yonge subway self-financing.

Despite the obvious appeal of subways, approximately 60 per cent of all TTC riders travel on the surface. According to 2010 data, the number of daily riders on Toronto’s eight streetcar lines alone (283,600) far exceeds the 187,850 daily riders on the entire Greater Toronto GO train and bus network. Surface transit matters big-time.

Perhaps the best illustration of the potential of an LRT line is on Spadina and Queen’s Quay, where streetcars operate within an exclusive right-of-way separate from vehicles and there’s always a streetcar in sight. This line alone carries 51,600 daily riders. Ironically, the total daily ridership on the Sheppard subway is only 47,000 while the Finch West bus carries 42,600 a day. These numbers illustrate that LRT can offer a good intermediate solution where the land use density does not justify a full subway.

After decades of inaction, Toronto urgently needs to get on with building transit of all types. Ford and the new council will be making 100-year decisions that will shape our future. Now is not the time to get cynical; the future success of Toronto and the region is far too important.

Paul Bedford was Toronto’s chief city planner from 1996 to 2004. He is a member of the board of directors of Metrolinx.