Urban Strategies was retained by the City of Toronto in Spring 2013 to assist in the City’s review of Porter Airlines’ proposal, put forward by the Toronto Port Authority (TPA), to extend the existing Runways 08 and 26 and to introduce jet-powered aircraft.

Urban Strategies assisted City Staff in developing and designing an evaluation framework for the proposal that analyzed the impact of the proposed expansion at the community, city, and regional scales. Urban Strategies assisted with the City’s public consultation process and conducted a review of relevant plans and policy to understand the proposal within the context of muncipal and provincial objectives. To illustrate and visualize the proposed expansion the Urban Strategies team is creating a 3D model and video ‘fly-through’ of the proposed runway extension and jet aircraft to be posted on the City’s website for public access. Urban Strategies also provided a review of BA Group’s Transportation Assessment of Proposed Jet Activity and subsequent infrastructure recommendations to analyze the Report’s urban design and planning implications.

Urban Strategies analyzed the Review’s technical findings in a Final Summary Report that will ultimately go to City Council to inform their decision making process. The Final Summary Report draws overarching conclusions from the Review’s technical finding and proposes a clear roadmap of next steps and studies to be completed for the City to appropriately resolve and respond to the controversial issue. Read the whole report here.