

Chris Fox, cp24.com





Big changes could be on the horizon for one of the busiest streets in Toronto.

A report unveiled Wednesday lays out an ambitious plan on how to make Yonge Street between Dundas and Gerrard more attractive to merchants and shoppers.

The report, written by Ken Greenberg of Greenberg Consultants and Marianne McKenna of KPMB Architects, suggests that more should be done to cater to the high levels of foot traffic in the area.

It highlights the fact that Yonge and Dundas has the highest pedestrian traffic in all of Canada with about 53,000 people passing through every eight hours – that's 250 per cent more pedestrians than vehicles - and suggests reducing traffic to two lanes and widening sidewalks to accommodate that.

"The value in real estate is determined by foot traffic. Everyone talks pedestrian count, but not one single retailer will say we need to look at a car count," Councilor Kristyn-Wong-Tam told CP24.com. "That's what this is about. The way the city is growing right now we need to start talk about building prosperity for businesses not cars."

Wong-Tam spent 16 years as a real estate agent before being elected to represent Ward 27 in October.

After joining council, she realized that the city had no plan for Yonge Street and began the arduous task of helping to develop one herself.

She went outside of council to fund the $40,000 study. Both the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area and Ryerson University contributed $10,000 and several other businesses made smaller donations.

"We had broad based buy in from the get go because people realized how desperately in need of help Yonge Street is," Wong-Tam said.

The report makes several major recommendations beyond simply widening sidewalks.

It sets out to limit the width of storefronts, discouraging big-box retailers that would dominate the Yonge Street landscape and proposes installing temporary barriers that would allow a stretch of the street to be shut down for special events.

It also vows to create stricter regulations encouraging the preservation of historic storefronts and suggests regulating building heights to preserve sightlines on certain stretches of Yonge Street.

It doesn't take a stance on the types of business in the area, but Wong-Tam gives off the impression that the plan could ultimately change the commercial makeup of Yonge Street.

Only time will tell whether that means fewer strip clubs, dollar stores and flag stores and more higher quality retailers, coffee shops and restaurants.

"At the end of the day merchants will be making more money, so property values will go up, rents will go up and that's going to attract higher quality retailers and merchants," she said.

A major development project at no cost to the city

The report will be brought to community council in October.

From there Wong-Tam hopes to identify a number of priority items, which can be brought to full council.

She expects a fight given Mayor Rob Ford's stated desire to end the "war on the car", but at the same time she is hopeful that the mayor and his allies will support the plan, if only to prove a point while encouraging other community funded development projects.

After all since coming into office Ford has spoken repeatedly about the need to find alternative ways to finance projects.

Wong-Tam's plan, which would be funded through an "investor roundtable" and Section 37 funding from developers, would appear to fit right in with that vision.

"I'm hoping that those that are business savvy and especially those councilors that claim to have a business background see the merits in this," she said. "It's extremely comprehensive and it was led by a community that came together and wanted to improve the area."

Removing lanes would be controversial

Of course not everyone is in favor.

Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the public works and infrastructure committee, said he'd have a hard time supporting any proposal that removes lanes on an already congested thoroughfare. When you consider the fact that Minnan-Wong is planning on commissioning a downtown traffic study in September that will look at reducing congestion on Yonge his comments aren't all that surprising.

"Congestion is an issue in the city and we need to move traffic a lot better," he told CP24.com. "To my mind constricting the roads won't help solve the gridlock problem it will add to it."

Ryerson University President and Vice Chancellor Sheldon Levy, however, told CP24.com that he's hopeful council will support Wong-Tam's plan. He said if they do, Ryerson might be willing to foot some of the cost.

"I am very supportive of it. I have been saying for a very long time that this part of the city requires a lot more attention than it has been getting and I think the ideas that Ken (Greenberg) had in the report are spot on," he said. "It is just so needed for the city and one of the great things is it won't even require the city to fund it. I think it will be funded through the private sector and the university."

James Robinson, the executive director of the Downtown Yonge Business Improvement Area, said it all boils down to making Yonge Street a destination that pedestrians don't pass through.

"We want to provide pedestrians an environment that will make them want to stay here," he said. "This is the heart of our city and lets be sure that it acts like that."