How can we take CONTROL and what are our TOOLS?

There are a number of way in which we can take CONTROL the development process.

• Continue a dialogue with our councillor Adam Giambrone
• Participate to the public consultation process
• Keep informed by registering with Active18’s listserv
• Voice your concerns in public and to City staff and elected officials
• Find and disseminate examples of development you would like to see in the neighbourhood; convey them to the Active18 web site, your councillor and city staff, as well as neighbours.

There are also a number of TOOLS that can help determining what constitutes good planning and city making. We may not have to resort to each of them but some may become useful:

Charrette, Design Competition

• The purpose of a charrette is to establish a framework for the major moves of the new neighbourhood in relation to the broader urban context. We will operate at the scale of streets, blocks and lanes, the organization and networking of park space, the character of streets and other public places, the general shape, volume and maximum heights of buildings, some general ideas about land use and the generation of a powerful vision for a coherent node and Queen Street. The intention is to establish a framework that will last in time, yet remain flexible to adapt to an evolving society.
  
  
• A group of concerned citizens may get together to make their own AREA PLAN as a position statement before City staff, Council and the development community. This should be done in consultation with all stakeholders, Councillors and City Staff. For a good example of a resident-sponsored study that will be endorsed by the city, follow this link:
  www.wellingtonplace.org
  
  
• We could lobby for a Queen Street West Heritage Conservation District to be established in our neighbourhood. This could potentially have a lot of power to preserve the scale, character and even materials of new development on Queen W. An example of a Heritage Conservation District that is currently in the making can be reviewed at: http://www.toronto.ca/heritage-preservation/hcd_queen_west.htm.
  
  However a Heritage Conservation study can take a long time to do and it can also be expensive.

• Establish Urban Design Guidelines
  Urban design guidelines set out a direction and a reference for development. They coordinate the composite effect of new development upon the nature and character of the public space.

• Design Review
  Toronto is on its way to adopting this process more regularly. Please see the city’s link to find out more:
  http://www.toronto.ca/planning/designsymposium_2.htm#Part1.
  
  For a recent example of this process, please visit the Bloor West Village Residents Association www.bwvra.ca
  

  Excerpt from Councillor Giambrone's newsletter, 22 December 2005:
  

  Council approved a proposal to conduct a pilot project introducing a Design Review Panel to help ensure that new buildings and public spaces in Toronto are well designed. Review panels work successfully in many cities. Locations to test the concept in Toronto will be identified through public consultation and will include public projects as well as private development. Establishing a role for a Design Review Panel is seen as consistent with, and supportive of, the goals of the Official Plan and Council’s Beautiful City initiative.

• There are precedents in other wards for what is called a Build Form and Density Study. Such a study was used to include neighbourhood voices in the planning of the Niagara St. area (in Ward 19, Joe Pantalone). The study will be used to direct zoning in the area. This is a good example of the kind of concerns that
  

• Check it out at: http://www.toronto.ca/planning/niagara.htm