Staff Feature – Where Crosstown Meets Crosstown
October 14, 2022
By Anna Lim, Development Planning and Permits & Zack Carlan, Infrastructure Planning and Permits
Within the heart of Toronto, at Don Mills Road and Eglinton Avenue East, is the site of a highly anticipated new community: the Crosstown Community, located adjacent to the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit (Crosstown LRT) project.
Over the past 12 years, staff from TRCA’s Development (DPP) and Infrastructure (IPP) Planning and Permit teams have worked with the Applicant, the City of Toronto, and Metrolinx.
The New Crosstown Community
This 24-hectare site, located at 844 Don Mills, 1150 and 1155 Eglinton Avenue East in the Don River watershed, is the current home of Celestica International Inc. offices as well as manufacturing and warehousing. The Crosstown Community will transition this midtown site to a new sustainable community that will include a mix of uses, new roads, servicing, community services, and facilities and parks and open spaces.
The review of this project is led by planners from TRCA’s Development Planning and Permitting (DPP) team, with support from our technical staff in Planning Ecology, Water Resources, Geotechnical Engineering, and Hydrogeology.
DPP and the team reviewed a Draft Plan of Subdivision, Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw Amendments and Site Plan Application and worked with the Applicant and the City to mitigate the impacts of urbanization and maximize ecosystem services.
The existing natural system was protected and enhanced with ecological design principles. A Natural Heritage Impact Study and Geotechnical Slope Stability study were reviewed as part of delineating the development limits on the site.
TRCA’s advocacy policies encourage the retention and conservation of heritage buildings on their original site. A heritage building designed by Canadian architect John Parkin has been preserved at the base of one of the towers. To facilitate this, DPP and technical staff worked closely with the Applicant to allow a safely reduced setback from the top of bank.
DPP staff also worked closely with our Property and Risk Management staff to ensure that that the valleylands on this site would not only be re-naturalized but would also be transferred to TRCA as ownership and become part of E.T. Seton Park!
The New Crosstown LRT
Metrolinx’s new transit connection runs though midtown Toronto between Mount Dennis in the west and Kennedy Road in the east. It runs through both the Humber River and Don River watersheds, with 25 stations along the dedicated route, and additional connections to downtown and uptown with stops at TTC subway stations, GO stations, and of course, the new Crosstown Community
The review of this project has been led by planners from TRCA’s Infrastructure Planning and Permitting (IPP) team, with support from the very same technical staff involved in the DPP review of the Crosstown Community.
As part of the new Crosstown LRT project, IPP and technical staff reviewed the 2010 Environmental Assessment through our commenting roles to ensure that infrastructure was able to address TRCA policy and regulatory interests.
Following this, staff have been involved through the Service Level Agreement (SLA) with Metrolinx to review applications through a Voluntary Project Review (VPR) process that was established by TRCA to work with infrastructure agencies and partners who are exempt from the Ontario Regulation 166/06 permitting process.
The VPR process is designed to work with these agencies to allow TRCA staff to voluntarily review the detailed design for construction projects based on its expertise as a watershed management agency, and its interests related to natural hazards, natural heritage, including aquatic and terrestrial species and habitats, and water management.
In total, IPP and the technical team have reviewed over 30 VPR applications for the Crosstown LRT and are now working with Metrolinx to review restoration and compensation plans to ensure that any disturbance and removals are accounted for and properly implemented.
Staff have worked extremely hard to ensure our policies and interests are addressed throughout the process.
One of the main considerations that IPP and the technical review had to consider in reviewing the Crosstown LRT was safety. Between Black Creek Drive and Laird Drive, the Crosstown LRT is underground and there were significant environmental concerns related to the required location for the east and west portals, emergency access, utility relocations, and access to stops and stations.
Safety considerations related to engineering the very specific track curvatures and allowable inclines were of paramount consideration, as was acknowledging that the new system would be built beneath existing high-rises, roads and even a subway.
These factors made this project very tricky and avoiding environmental impacts became impossible; our mission became to minimize and compensate environmental impacts.
Widening bridges to accommodate aboveground tracks posed its own set of concerns and issues, and TRCA worked closely with City staff to ensure the viewshed above and within the Don Valley was not impacted for the community, transit riders, or park users.
Site visits were held, geotechnical and ecological concerns were major factors, and community outreach was significant.
Crosstown Community Meets Crosstown LRT
Where Crosstown meets Crosstown at the West Don and E.T. Seton Park, there were some interesting technical considerations and integrations.
Just west of Crosstown Community, IPP facilitated a partnership between Metrolinx and TRCA’s Erosion Risk Management (ERM) staff to ensure that an appropriate cut-fill balance was completed to mitigate necessary fill required on the north side of Eglinton for an accessible trail connection.
This partnership was able to help move forward essential trail connections proposed by Metrolinx and provide valuable support for an ERM project that will address significant erosion issues associated with the West Don River, south of Eglinton Avenue, which is currently in the planning stage.
At the stop beside the Crosstown Community, it became evident to both DPP and IPP that there was a potential to develop a trailhead and ensure connections into E.T. Seton Park would be available to the Crosstown Community as well as LRT riders.
DPP and the technical team has led the way with this important trail planning initiative. The new trail to access the ravine will go from the cloverleaf interchange ramp into E.T. Seton Park, and on to TRCA owned land that is managed by the City of Toronto.
DPP and the technical team has worked with City staff to ensure the design meets TRCA regulatory requirements, protects the ecology of the area, and safely connects Crosstown Community and Crosstown LRT riders to nature.
A Big Thank You!
It takes a significant team effort to review development and infrastructure applications, especially ones this multifaceted. A huge thank you to the TRCA team past and present, who have been such integral parts of moving these projects forward:
DPP & IPP staff:
- Anna Lim
- Zack Carlan
- Alannah Slattery
- Beth Williston
- Nathan Jenkins
- Shirin Varzgani
- Steve Heuchert
Technical staff:
- Ali Shirazi
- Alistair Jolly
- Brad Stephens
- Brennan Paul
- Cherilyn Silvestri
- Don Ford
- Jamie Milnes
Administrative staff:
- Grace Conte
- Antonietta Gentile
- Oxana Stanislavskaya
Also, a big thank you to our ERM team including Matt Johnston, Ashour Rehana, Divya Sasi and WonJai Jang, as well as Edlyn Wong from our Property & Risk Management team.
The integrated review and implementation process that development and infrastructure planning and technical teams rely on are key to ensuring TRCA’s planning policies and objectives are achieved across our jurisdiction. This is one example of many through which we collectively work to achieve TRCA’s vision of The Living City.