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As Toronto's population continues to burgeon and diverse neighbourhoods undergo rapid urban development, City Planning has recognized the importance of participatory studies, public process, and community engagement for responsible, sustainable growth. In 2013, City Planning began Planners in Public Spaces (PiPS), a public engagement initiative that strives to "bring planners to the people" in an effort to inform and shape policy around communities' comments and concerns.
Since 2013, PiPS has brought tents, tables, and planners to various parks, recreation centres, and events across the city. PiPS represents a concerted move away from 'top-down' city planning towards community participation that supplements the public consultation process. This fall, PiPS will serve the ongoing Midtown in Focus study, City Planning's inter-divisional initiative that plans to study the Yonge-Eglinton neighbourhood so as to "ensure that growth positively contributes to the area's vitality and quality of life."
As the Midtown in Focus study enters a key analysis phase, City Planning hopes to collaborate more directly with stakeholders through PiPS to develop a strategic plan for Midtown's growth. On July 12, City Council adopted four recommendations during a Midtown in Focus status report, instructed City Planning staff to "identify opportunities on City-owned lands for new community infrastructure and secure community infrastructure space," and refine the study's principles in collaboration with the local communities.
As such, City Planning has organized a series of PiPS initiatives to bring Midtown in Focus to the landowners, community members, and local neighbourhood. Two PiPS events relating to the Midtown in Focus study will take place towards the end of the month, on Saturday, September 24 from 10:30 AM to 2:00 PM at the Mount Pleasant Village Harvest Fair and on Thursday, September 29 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the Uptown Farmers Market in St. Clements-Yonge Parkette.
As the Midtown in Focus strategic plan shapes up, subsequent PiPS events will seek to workshop ideas about transportation priorities, water infrastructure, priority community infrastructure projects, parks, and built form policy.
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Interested in PiPS events or have thoughts about the future of the Midtown in Focus initiative? Feel free to share your comments in the field provided below.
