Waterfront Master Plan Preliminary Directions and ... - City of Oshawa

City of Oshawa Waterfront Master Plan
Lakeview Park.
1 introduction
The City of Oshawa Waterfront includes
extensive parkland and major natural features.
It also includes a signifi cant Harbour Area,
although plans for its redevelopment prepared in
the 1990’s have not progressed as anticipated.
The City has undertaken on-going planning
across the Oshawa Waterfront, and particularly
the Harbour Area, for many years. However,
a need for a more comprehensive vision and
implementation strategy has been identifi ed. This
is primarily due to concerns with the Harbour
Area, which became evident in April 2006 when
the Oshawa Harbour Commission (OHC) and
CN Rail proposed a rail spur on part of 25
hectares of land that the City had transferred to
the Crown in 1966. As a result, in May 2006, the
City initiated a process to establish an up-to-date
comprehensive vision and master plan for the
Oshawa Harbour area. In addition, in July 2006,
the City initiated a lawsuit against OHC, CN and
the Crown for the return of the lands which had
been transferred to the Crown.
The preparation of the Waterfront Master
Plan commenced in October 2006. However,
work on the study was put on hold in the Fall
of 2007, pending completion of a review of
governance issues related to the Harbour. This
review, undertaken by the Honourable David
Crombie for Transport Canada, commenced in
September 2007. The resulting report, entitled
“Recommendations for the Future of the
Oshawa Harbour”, was submitted to the Federal
Government on February 21, 2008, but not
released to the public until September 2, 2008.
In June 2009, the Federal Government declined
to advance the recommendations in the Crombie
report, announced the intent to create a
Canadian Port Authority and offered to negotiate
a settlement of the City’s lawsuit. Negotiations
took place between June 2009 and May 2010.
The fi nal settlement outcome and its implications
for future development in the Harbour Area is
discussed in detail in Section 5.5 of this report.
The overall purpose of the Oshawa Waterfront
Master Plan is to establish a comprehensive and
realistic vision for the Waterfront and provide
strategies for its implementation, including
recommended development priorities and
guidance for any future parks and Master Plans
that may be prepared.
The majority of the Waterfront outside the
Harbour Area is used for public parkland,
other public facilities (e.g. water treatment and
supply plants), or contains major environmental
features (e.g. Second Marsh, Pumphouse Marsh,
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