FAQ Category: Progress and planning

Waterfront Toronto is working with the City of Toronto and the TTC on a Waterfront Transit Network Expansion. In the long-term, Light Rail Transit (LRTs) are planned along Queens Quay East, Cherry Street, Commissioners Street, and Broadview Avenue. For more information, visit the City of Toronto’s webpage.

The timeline for this new transit is not yet firm. We will share updates via our newsletter and social media channels as they become available. To subscribe to the Waterfront Toronto newsletter, click here.

The plan for Villiers Island is to build a mix of affordable and family-friendly housing. As part of our precinct planning and our overall mandate, Waterfront Toronto sets aside land sufficient to accommodate 20% of residential units as Affordable Rental Housing in all our neighbourhoods. Additional rental housing may be available based on the developer proposals that are received, and we’re working with the City of Toronto to make the percentage of affordable housing even higher.

The current work in the Port Lands is for flood protection and does not include any development or buildings. Development of Villiers Island, including building affordable housing, will happen after the flood protection work is complete in 2024.

You can find the Villiers Island precinct plan here.

Find the latest construction updates and notices here. You can also see the overall construction schedule here.

Look for news about upcoming meetings here.

Read the latest Waterfront Toronto newsletter, with updates on this and other projects, here.

Once we complete construction on the Port Lands Flood Protection project in 2024, a new river valley will run through the Port Lands. This natural landscape will become home to diverse plants and wildlife. Land that was once unusable and under the threat of flooding will be ready to transform into complete communities and thriving businesses.

Any development that takes place will be guided by the Port Lands Planning Framework, approved by Toronto City Council in 2017.

Planning initiatives for the Port Lands have been underway for over a decade, and have resulted in not only the Planning Framework, but a number of other key studies and plans that will guide development. Read more about those plans here.

The new river valley will create Villiers Island. However, this project doesn’t include the development of new buildings on Villiers Island, or anywhere in the Port Lands. That development can begin once Port Lands Flood Protection is complete in 2024.

The guidelines for buildings, roads and more on Villiers Island are in the Villiers Island Precinct Plan. The Villiers Island Precinct Plan was adopted by Toronto City Council in October 2017, along with the Port Lands Planning Framework, which sets the long-term vision for the Port Lands. As part of the planning process to finalize the Villiers Island Precinct Plan, we collaborated with the City of Toronto to consult the public. Find public presentations and meeting summary reports in our document library.

The design work underway does consider parks, public spaces and roads on Villiers Island to make sure what we build as part of Port Lands Flood Protection works as part of the larger, future system of parks in the Port Lands. It doesn’t deal with any new buildings. Find out more about what we are building as part of Port Lands Flood Protection here.

Construction began on the Cherry Street Lakefilling Project in December 2017. We started digging the new river valley in summer 2018. The Port Lands Flood Protection Project is scheduled for completion in 2024.

Read more about construction here.