Wild digital enthusiasm collided with doubt and suspicion Monday night during the first in a flurry of public meetings over Google’s proposal to transform a vast chunk of Toronto’s waterfront into the world’s smartest city.

More than 100 people who turned out at the North York Civil Centre council chambers were divided and subdivided into 16 groups for side sessions drilling down into their impressions of the multi-chapter, 1,500-plus-page proposal tabled last month to Waterfront Toronto, the three-government agency overseeing the project.

Much of the purpose of these opening sessions, Waterfront Toronto officials said, was to tackle confusion over the immensity of the proposal itself.

Attendees, after participating in smaller-group sessions in side rooms, returned to council chambers toward the end of the three-hour meeting, where their main concerns were summarized by a team of independent of “facilitators” led by Nicole Swerhun.

Worries about the sheer scope of the project, the absence of an overall summary of the digital giant’s ambitions and a lack of detail about the Google subsidiaries’ partnerships were among the concerns raised in the breakout sessions, according to Swerhun’s facilitators.

In the one breakout session attended by the Toronto Star and probing the specifics of the partnerships Google envisions to pay for its innovative experiments, one private citizen, Kerry Pappas, expressed deep reservations about Google’s ultimate intentions.

“I’m for development, for affordable housing, I’m all for transit — but what I’d like to see is a much clearer outline of what Google wants from it all. We need to ask for an executive summary instead of 1,500 pages. It’s just too much. Our waterfront is one of the most valuable assets we have.

“We need a much clearer understanding of what they get out of this. Are they looking to establish a fourth level of government that would work for digital cities owned by Google?”

Other objections raised Monday night included questions over regulatory changes the proposed project would require, above and beyond the authority of Waterfront Toronto.

Waterfront Toronto officials were able to dispel several misconceptions, noting that “approval” of the Sidewalk Labs expanded Quayside proposal — which could eventually encompass some 190 acres of prime Port Lands real estate — would simple mean a continuation of the plan, not a done deal. Any such plan would still need to meet all other regulatory approvals before it moved forward.

Other questions brought forward were concerns over how the new level of administrative authority sought by Google would integrate into the existing structures of government.

And in a separate session on digital innovation, it was suggested that Waterfront Toronto should empower a panel of experts to keep Google honest on whether the technology they are proposing is the only technology available for any given application.

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Sidewalk Labs, a sister firm of Google, has stated that it would be the lead real estate developer in the project and would provide, along with local partners, up to $1.3 billion in funding and financing for creating the high-tech neighbourhood, including residential, commercial and office spaces.

Its draft document calls for a chunk of the eastern waterfront to be turned into an Innovative Development and Economic Acceleration (IDEA) District — an area that includes the 12-acre Quayside site near Parliament St. and Queens Quay E., and 20 acres of the City of Toronto-owned, yet-to-be-developed property in the Port Lands called “Villiers West.”

But critics of the proposal point to, among other things, Sidewalk’s assertion that a new LRT on the waterfront is “essential” to the project — the city has planned to build such a new light-rail line for a decade, but the price tag for that is thought to be $1.2 billion and it’s thus far unfunded.

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Three further public consultations are to be held over the next two weeks, much closer to the site of the proposed development. They are scheduled for July 17 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Radisson Admiral Hotel, 249 Queens Quay W.; July 20 from 9 a.m. to noon George Brown College, Auditorium (51 Dockside Dr.); and July 23, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Chestnut Residence and Conference Centre, 89 Chestnut St.

Waterfront Toronto officials told The Star the first phase of consultations are likely to expand into a second round of consultations in the fall, after the backers of the Quayside project have a chance to work through the initial wave of public reaction.

Though there was no audio or video recording of Monday’s initial three-hour public meeting, Waterfront Toronto officials told The Star that they expect to record and make publicly available all subsequent meetings, with written summaries to be posted online.

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