The city has proposed to seize the port lands redevelopment project from Waterfront Toronto, the three-government agency Councillor Doug Ford has repeatedly criticized.

The proposal calls into question the future of Waterfront Toronto’s plans for the site.

The agency, which has received $500 million from each of the federal, provincial and municipal governments, wants to create a mixed-use Lower Don Lands community with 12,500 residential units, 500,000 square feet of retail space, and 53 hectares of parks and public space.

Ford, who has called the agency “the biggest boondoggle the feds, the province and the city has ever done,” wants parks on the site — but has also proposed an NFL football stadium, “massive” high-end stores and a monorail.

Ford declined to comment Friday, saying he would not speak to the Star.

Under the proposal from the city’s top bureaucrat released Friday afternoon, the city would attempt to renegotiate its port lands agreement with the other governments and, if necessary, consider terminating it.

Under the proposal, Mayor Rob Ford’s administration would gain far more control over the port lands than it has at present. The city would remove the site from Waterfront Toronto and hand it to a reconfigured Toronto Port Lands Company.

The company’s current board is composed entirely of senior city bureaucrats. Under the proposal, the board would have two councillors, five citizen appointees and two bureaucrats.

The city’s major concern, as expressed by city manager Joe Pennachetti, is with the flood protection plan council endorsed in 2010.

Development on the land cannot proceed without a flood protection strategy.

The current plan is estimated at $634 million, but no funding has yet been committed to it, Pennachetti notes. He also argues the plan would “have the effect of limiting development potential” by separating the land into three parcels.

Pennachetti’s proposal suggests that the city “explore private sector and other options” for flood protection.

“The existing governance structure has been in place for 10 years and has not produced a viable funding plan for the port lands,” he wrote.

“It appears that Waterfront Toronto is not in a position to coordinate a comprehensive revitalization program for the port lands that would allow for significant development within the next ten years, at a minimum.”

Ford administration allies on council have complained publicly about the pace of Waterfront Toronto’s work.

Waterfront activist Julie Beddoes, who was part of the community liaison committee for the project’s environmental assessment, scoffed at the suggestion that the corporations would pay for flood protection, pointing to the Fords’ abandoned promise that the private sector would cover the cost of the Sheppard subway expansion.

But left-leaning councillor Paula Fletcher, whose ward contains part of the site, said she was willing to consider Pennachetti’s recommendations. The cost of flood protection, she said, has not been adequately analyzed.

“The issue has to do with affordability. Often there are plans in the port lands that aren’t affordable,” Fletcher said. “Other flood protection plans may be just as expensive. But we have not done the analysis. That’s really what we need to do. We need to do our due diligence. And if this report allows due diligence, then that’s a good thing.”

Waterfront Toronto spokeswoman Marisa Piattelli would not say whether the agency believes Doug Ford is behind the attempt to seize the project. But she said the proposal did not come as a surprise given Ford’s public comments about the site.

“We’ve all been aware — it’s been in the media — of a desire to look at the port lands,” Piattelli said.

She said the agency’s work has “flowed from the direction government has given us.” And she noted that “there’s been a lot of work done,” including the completion of a lengthy public consultation process and the $19 million environmental assessment currently being studied by the province.

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The Lower Don Lands proposal, she said, was one of 17 projects worldwide endorsed for its environmental qualities by Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative. Piattelli called Waterfront Toronto’s plan “stellar.”

“If there’s a change of direction, and a change of approach, and the three governments want to do that, then Waterfront Toronto takes its direction from the three governments,” she said.

Waterfront Toronto, created in 2001, has been defended vehemently by prominent architects and planners since the onslaught of criticism began earlier this year.

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