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Mississauga Waterfront - No new plant at Lakeview!
No new plant at Lakeview
RICK EGLINGTON/TORONTO STAR
The Lakeview site in Mississauga is outlined on this picture shot from the air on July 16, 2008. The barren patch at centre is the site of the now-demolished generating station. The east-end Mississauga neighbourhood has been industrialized for decades but this would change under a development proposal.
Rob Ferguson
Brett Popplewell
Staff reporters
The coal is gone, and now gas is out, too.
The province's announcement yesterday that it will not put a gas-fired generator on the site of the demolished coal-fired Lakeview power plant opens the door to a grand, citizen-developed waterfront plan that was enthusiastically endorsed in principle by Mississauga city council in February.
"It's a great day," said a relieved Jim Tovey, president of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association, which was credited by Energy Minister George Smitherman yesterday for helping to influence the decision.
"It's an amazing thing," Tovey said of the group's success in persuading the city not to back another power plant along the lakeshore. "This is a sign that any community can implement positive change. It's just a matter of doing your homework."
The announcement is historic for the east-end Mississauga neighbourhood, which has been industrialized since the late 19th century – first as an artillery range in the 1890s, then as an airstrip in World War I, a munitions factory in World War II, and finally as one of the province's major power producers and the GTA's single worst source of air pollution.
"We're proud of the area's past contributions, but now it's time to move on," Tovey said.
John Danahy, a University of Toronto professor and landscape architect who took charge of the ratepayers association plan, also hailed the announcement.
"I think this is going to be the poster child for smart growth of the province," he said.
At a waterfront news conference, Smitherman said he is ordering the Ontario Power Authority to launch a bidding process for a gas-fired plant elsewhere in the western GTA.
He acknowledged that, while defusing the Lakeview controversy, he is fuelling another because, to use existing transmission lines, a new plant must be placed between east Oakville and west Etobicoke.
Tovey's 800-member group hopes to see 200 hectares of Lakeview industrial land – an area more than two and a half times the size of Exhibition Place – become a thriving mixed-use community, with medium-rise buildings, residential, employment and educational sites, and a "destination" waterfront area devoted to trails, parks, an aquarium or stadium, and a pier with entertainment and educational features. But it's uncertain exactly how much of the group's vision will be realized.
"It has good things in it, but, you know, it's got to be reviewed," Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion said of the citizen-created plan, suggesting the city may not be able to afford the key parcel, an 80-hectare waterfront section owned by Ontario Power Generation.
"It's negotiations with OPG and the province that will determine the plan here."
Danahy said he wasn't surprised McCallion wasn't 100 per cent in favour of the residents' plan.
"I am shocked at how quickly people came to the common sense of this decision because Toronto has been trying to do the same thing (waterfront development) on their lands for 30 years. Like all things initially it had a conceptual vision, and the principles of that is what everyone bought into."
Smitherman suggested Mississauga shouldn't be expecting a cash contribution from the province to develop the land, saying sparing the area from a power plant is enough. "We've already got our dime in."
The Lakeview coal-fired plant, just east of a waterfront park, yacht club and splash park for children, was shut down in 2005.
A woman playing with her children in the splash park near the old plant yesterday called the decision not to build a new one "fabulous."
"We need to clean up the lakeshore," said Debbie O'Neill, who grew up in nearby south Etobicoke and now lives in Oakville.
"It's our way of escaping the city."
Louroz
No new plant at Lakeview
RICK EGLINGTON/TORONTO STAR
The Lakeview site in Mississauga is outlined on this picture shot from the air on July 16, 2008. The barren patch at centre is the site of the now-demolished generating station. The east-end Mississauga neighbourhood has been industrialized for decades but this would change under a development proposal.
Rob Ferguson
Brett Popplewell
Staff reporters
The coal is gone, and now gas is out, too.
The province's announcement yesterday that it will not put a gas-fired generator on the site of the demolished coal-fired Lakeview power plant opens the door to a grand, citizen-developed waterfront plan that was enthusiastically endorsed in principle by Mississauga city council in February.
"It's a great day," said a relieved Jim Tovey, president of the Lakeview Ratepayers Association, which was credited by Energy Minister George Smitherman yesterday for helping to influence the decision.
"It's an amazing thing," Tovey said of the group's success in persuading the city not to back another power plant along the lakeshore. "This is a sign that any community can implement positive change. It's just a matter of doing your homework."
The announcement is historic for the east-end Mississauga neighbourhood, which has been industrialized since the late 19th century – first as an artillery range in the 1890s, then as an airstrip in World War I, a munitions factory in World War II, and finally as one of the province's major power producers and the GTA's single worst source of air pollution.
"We're proud of the area's past contributions, but now it's time to move on," Tovey said.
John Danahy, a University of Toronto professor and landscape architect who took charge of the ratepayers association plan, also hailed the announcement.
"I think this is going to be the poster child for smart growth of the province," he said.
At a waterfront news conference, Smitherman said he is ordering the Ontario Power Authority to launch a bidding process for a gas-fired plant elsewhere in the western GTA.
He acknowledged that, while defusing the Lakeview controversy, he is fuelling another because, to use existing transmission lines, a new plant must be placed between east Oakville and west Etobicoke.
Tovey's 800-member group hopes to see 200 hectares of Lakeview industrial land – an area more than two and a half times the size of Exhibition Place – become a thriving mixed-use community, with medium-rise buildings, residential, employment and educational sites, and a "destination" waterfront area devoted to trails, parks, an aquarium or stadium, and a pier with entertainment and educational features. But it's uncertain exactly how much of the group's vision will be realized.
"It has good things in it, but, you know, it's got to be reviewed," Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion said of the citizen-created plan, suggesting the city may not be able to afford the key parcel, an 80-hectare waterfront section owned by Ontario Power Generation.
"It's negotiations with OPG and the province that will determine the plan here."
Danahy said he wasn't surprised McCallion wasn't 100 per cent in favour of the residents' plan.
"I am shocked at how quickly people came to the common sense of this decision because Toronto has been trying to do the same thing (waterfront development) on their lands for 30 years. Like all things initially it had a conceptual vision, and the principles of that is what everyone bought into."
Smitherman suggested Mississauga shouldn't be expecting a cash contribution from the province to develop the land, saying sparing the area from a power plant is enough. "We've already got our dime in."
The Lakeview coal-fired plant, just east of a waterfront park, yacht club and splash park for children, was shut down in 2005.
A woman playing with her children in the splash park near the old plant yesterday called the decision not to build a new one "fabulous."
"We need to clean up the lakeshore," said Debbie O'Neill, who grew up in nearby south Etobicoke and now lives in Oakville.
"It's our way of escaping the city."
Louroz
