The Fort York Neighbourhood (formerly known as the Bathurst/Strachan Area) is an eight-hectare (20-acre) brownfields area located immediately to the south of Toronto's Fort York National Historic Site. Construction of a 28-storey residential tower and 7- to 12- storey podium building has already begun at the west end of the neighbourhood, at the corner of Fleet Street and the recently completed Fort York Boulevard. This is the first element of the planned redevelopment of the site into a mixed-use community, including 12 residential towers, podium buildings and stacked townhouses, with grade-level retail and commercial uses. Eventually the neighbourhood will house an estimated 6000 units within the area north of Lakeshore Boulevard, south of Fort York Boulevard between Strachan Avenue and Dan Leckie Way (an extension of Portland Street).

Public Consultation:
A three-day Design Workshop was held in January 2003 involving staff from City Planning and Urban Design, area landowners and stakeholders, including the Friends of Fort York. The workshop achieved a level of consensus on the elements of the Fort York Neighbourhood, including built form, diversity of housing types, the neighbourhood streets and blocks plan and links to surrounding neighbourhoods and to the waterfront.

Area landowners, together with City staff and interested parties, met regularly from June through December 2003 to develop a plan for the parks, open space and streetscapes throughout the Fort York Neighbourhood and extending to parts of the Railway Lands West. Planning staff also held a community consultation meeting on the proposed Plan, chaired by the Ward Councillor, on January 20, 2004. At its meeting held on May 18, 19 and 20, 2004, City Council adopted recommendation of the Director, Community Planning, South District, contained in a Final Report for the Fort York Neighbourhood dated May 3, 2004.

Role of the Public Realm Plan:
The role of the Public Realm Plan is to guide the development of the public streets and parks adjoining private open spaces including the following:

• the relationship to adjacent neighbourhoods and the public space linkages;
• the conceptual streetscape plans for the various types of streets;
• the relationship between the public open spaces and the private open spaces; and
• the conceptual design of the principal neighbourhood parks: Link Park and Gore Park. Also, illustrations of possibilities for the Fort York grounds and Mouth of the Creek Park are included.

The Public Realm Plan also includes architectural design guidelines including the following:

• the location of build-to and setback lines;
• the location of step-backs for taller buildings;
• the relationship of towers to base buildings; and
• the treatment of building projections as they relate to the character and quality