The cultural richness of the Toronto Entertainment District is immediately striking. It is an area with layers of history and experience. It is a centre for nightlife, dining, live entertainment and film, professional sports, workplaces, and living. Key to the District’s assets is its enviable location: ringed by the Financial District, the waterfront, Union Station, Spadina Avenue and the historic Queen Street West commercial strip.

Former warehouses, relics of the industrial heritage of the King-Spadina area, in large part have set the tone for a significant area in the District. Former factory and railway buildings are now loft offices, studios and gallery spaces, restaurants and entertainment venues. The less known underlay to this industrial heritage is a history of grand residences and public structures, including the former location of the parliament buildings.

What were once empty lots and surface parking areas are increasingly being built up with new condominium and office towers. Most of these new buildings combine a mix of uses, contributing to a diversity of activities in all hours and seasons.

The lands south of the railway are being developed, and integrating them with the rest of the District is challenging. With some aspects of the public realm unchanged since the industrial period, streetscape conditions need to be updated to be more conducive to the emerging mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented urban environment. Forgotten places such as side streets and alleys may hold untapped potential in a context of increasing demand for usable space. The rich local history, both industrial and pre-industrial, could be better protected. The conflict between existing uses and newly emerging ones needs to be resolved.

Many similar districts across North America have faced similar successes and challenges. Guided by visioning plans and studies, other business improvement area organizations have notably improved the look and feel of places such as Times Square in New York City and State Street/Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Locally, both the Bloor-Yorkville and Downtown-Yonge BIAs are currently implementing their own plans and transforming the appearance and image of their respective districts.

By articulating a long-term vision and providing guidance for change, the Toronto Entertainment District Master Plan seeks to enable the District’s continued transformation in a predictable and coordinated manner, while protecting and reinforcing the distinct and defining characteristics that are central to its sustained success. These characteristics include the entertainment related functions; the unique and diverse mix of uses; and, the historic ‘brick and beam’ structures. Central to the vision will be compelling ideas and guidance for improving the public realm to create beautiful and memorable streets and public spaces.

Cities are dynamic which is part of what makes them vibrant and exciting. No other area in the City of Toronto is seeing as much change as the Entertainment District. The Master Plan recognizes this and has been designed to be a living document, one that will grow and change over time to ensure that it remains relevant. Updates to the Master Plan may be undertaken periodically to ensure that significant changes to the existing physical and/or policy context will be reflected.

Established in 2008, the Toronto Entertainment District Business Improvement Area’s (BIA) mandate is to promote, improve, and preserve this dynamic area of Toronto.

The Toronto Entertainment District encompasses a significant part of the Downtown area, generally bounded by the Financial District to the east, Queen Street West to the north, Spadina Avenue to the west, and the Gardiner Expressway and Harbourfront to the south.

A Master Plan is most effective when it can compel, inspire and bring about the intended outcomes. To do so, it must be rooted in the realm of possibilities, be legible to a broad spectrum of users and provide clear and concise direction to decision-makers. To be credible, the Master Plan must also be substantiated through technical analysis, be a product of a well documented public engagement process, and define the appropriate tools or mechanisms for implementation.

By articulating a long-term vision to work towards, a Master Plan can help guide on-going decisions that impact the physical environment of the District in a coordinated and strategic manner. In addition to guiding the BIA in its mandate, the Master Plan can also provide benchmarks and standards for developers and set priorities for investments in the public realm.

Some of the benefits of having a Master Plan include:

• Direction for Protecting Areas — identifying and strategizing for the protection of the treasured aspects of the District that define its unique and distinct character
• Direction for Enhancing Areas — strategies for revitalizing and improving areas in the District
• Unifies and Strengthens the Community — providing the District with one, unified and consistent voice to respond to or act on issues and opportunities
• Direction for Actions — guidance for decision-making and identifies strategies and priorities for initiatives and investments
• Profile and image building — raises awareness for the District and its long-term objectives, as well as providing tools and materials for marketing and promotions

The Master Plan unfolded over ten months. This process has sought to incorporate the various voices of a wide array of interests into a vision for the Toronto Entertainment District, including resident groups, development interests, design professionals, heritage groups, businesses and property owners.

To ensure an inclusive process, an Advisory Committee that has met monthly has guided the development of this Master Plan. The Advisory Committee is comprised of a broad representation of interests and includes members from the BIA Board of Directors, residents’ associations, BIA members, developers, Councillor Adam Vaughan and City of Toronto Staff.

As a community driven process, inputs from each successive phase in the process had been integrated into the next. These inputs have been derived from key consultation events where the public was engaged to build upon and advance ideas. To this end, the process focused around the following public consultation events:

Stakeholder Focus Group Sessions Held over the course of three days on May 27, 28 and June 3, the stakeholder focus group sessions helped inform the background analysis through the identification of opportunities and constraints.

Web Survey To provide further clarity for the priorities, issues and opportunities for the Master Plan, a web survey was undertaken through the project website. Over 650 participants were asked specific questions about the Toronto Entertainment District to help inform the direction for Master Plan.

Visioning Workshop Held September 8-10, 2008, the Visioning Workshop was an exciting and intensive event that involved the entire Consultant Team, members of the Advisory Committee, stakeholders and members of the public. It served to facilitate discussion, debates and the generation of ideas. The Visioning Workshop worked towards generating a comprehensive plan, demonstration development concepts, and designs for capital improvements — all which directly contributed to the preparation of the Master Plan.

The results from both the Stakeholder Focus Group Sessions and the Web Survey helped inform the Positioning Report — a summary of the background, existing conditions, and issues and opportunities analysis.

As an outcome of a comprehensive planning initiative of this magnitude, a Master Plan is an extensive body of work that is comprised of a number of significant components serving various purposes. However, a key objective in structuring this Master Plan has been to ensure a highly accessible and easily readable document. Accordingly, to ensure the vision and guidance components of the Master Plan is as concise a document as possible, the background analysis and directions are provided in a separate Positioning Report comprised of the following three documents:

Part I: What Was Said This report presents and analyzes the consultation that was undertaken and includes past studies undertaken in the District.

Part II: What We See This report presents and analyzes the existing policy and physical conditions, as well as the emerging context.

Part III: What Should Happen This final document consolidates the issues and challenges identified through the planning process and provides a set of potential strategies for moving forward.

For background and greater contextual detail, the Positioning Report should be read in conjunction with this Master Plan.

For ease of reference and manageability, the Toronto Entertainment District Master Plan is divided into five sections, as follows:

Part 1: Introduction The introduction provides the context for the master planning process, including the purpose and objectives of the Plan as well as an overview of the study process.

Part 2: The Vision This section sets out the guiding principles, key overarching strategies and the objectives for the six distinct Character Areas that comprise the Toronto Entertainment District.

Part 3: Public Realm Framework The Public Realm Framework provides guidance for the elements of the Toronto Entertainment District that are in public ownership — primarily streets and public open spaces.

Part 4: Built Form Framework The Built Form Framework provides guidance for appropriate development in the District.

Part 5: Implementation Strategy The Implementation Strategy provides the Toronto Entertainment District BIA with guidance in bringing the vision to fruition by defining and prioritizing recommendations and actions.