“Flawed” and a “non-starter” are the words city Councillor Paula Fletcher uses to describe Sidewalk Labs’ proposal to build part of its high-tech neighbourhood on Villiers West, a little known, yet-to-be-built area in the Port Lands.

But the chair of the board for Waterfront Toronto, the agency partnering with Sidewalk, says the idea is “definitely” worth considering.

“If there is an excellent opportunity to create an innovation hub and Google headquarters on land that is the City of Toronto’s, I do believe in this particular instance that we do have an obligation to look at it,” said board chair Steve Diamond. “It’s not an enormous additional piece of land,” he said, referring to Villiers West.

“I think it is worth a look, definitely worth a look,” added Diamond, who has been critical of some elements of Sidewalk’s overall proposal.

As part of its draft master plan released Monday called Toronto Tomorrow: A New Approach for Inclusive Growth, Sidewalk Labs proposes to build a sensor-driven mixed-use development on a 12-acre property near Queens Quay E. and Parliament called Quayside. The Manhattan-based firm also wants to bring a new Google Canada headquarters and an “urban innovation institute” to 20 acres of property in the Port Lands called Villiers West.

Villiers West is part of Villiers Island, an entirely new island being created in concert with a massive $1.25-billion flood protection project currently underway in the Port Lands. The new island consisting of Villiers West and Villiers East will feature homes, office buildings, bike and walking paths, parks, new bridges and roads, and more.

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City of Toronto chief planner Gregg Lintern said in a statement to the Star that there will be additional infrastructure costs for Villiers Island beyond the $1.25-billion flood protection.

He pointed out that additional investment is required for major infrastructure, local services, community infrastructure such as recreation, child care, fire and EMS services, along with parkland and initial bus rapid transit service.

There’s an extensive precinct plan for the island, and preliminary work has already begun. The land is owned by the City of Toronto, and the island will be built out over a 20-year period once the flood protection work in the Port Lands is complete, around 2024.

The precinct plan and a 2016 video promotion for the island talk about creating a new, sustainable, low-carbon-emitting city that is connected to downtown Toronto and where technology is used to improve the quality of life.

Fletcher, whose Ward 14 Toronto Danforth area takes in the Port Lands, says she was surprised this week to see that Sidewalk Labs is now, in her words, “staking a claim” to Villiers West, and she plans to send a letter to Waterfront Toronto voicing her opposition.

“I think Waterfront Toronto has to decide if they can give Sidewalk an exclusive right to Villiers West and if not, that should come off the table. There is nothing that I’ve read in Waterfront Toronto’s RFP that would give (Sidewalk Labs) the exclusive right to take 20 acres of Villiers Island, which already has a plan behind it.

“I think everybody (including the public) has a right to look at what should go on Villiers Island. We’re not just starting at zero here,” Fletcher said in an interview Tuesday.

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“We are well developed in this” Villiers Island plan, she said.

The councillor pointed out that a river running near Villiers is being rerouted, and work on a park is underway. Sewers and roads are going in and bridges are being rebuilt.

“Everything is underway to create Villiers Island. And then the precinct plan is there. This is not a blank slate.”

She called Sidewalk’s proposal for Villiers “flawed” and a “non-starter” and said procurement rules seem to have been thrown out the window.

“There has to be a competition. There has to be a tender. There is no procurement in the RFP by Waterfront Toronto to give away 20 acres on Villiers Island.”

Diamond said it would be up to the City of Toronto to decide which type of procurement process to put in place, and there are options the city could pursue, from a complete request for proposal to a sole-source procurement.

“That would be up to the City of Toronto to determine,” Diamond said.

Sidewalk Labs is taking the position that Waterfront Toronto and the city should work with them on Villiers West.

In an interview Monday, Sidewalk CEO Dan Doctoroff said that while it’s completely the purview of the city, “what we’re suggesting is the value of an innovation campus anchored by a dramatically expanded Google (Canada) headquarters hopefully would be something the city would express a lot of excitement over.”

Doctoroff added that neither Sidewalk nor Waterfront Toronto can “impose any requirement” on the city regarding the proposal.

“It will be ultimately up to the city and we’re prepared to have that discussion,” he said.

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