Toronto's Chief Planner Leaving City Hall

There is a changing of the guard in the City of Toronto with head planner Jennifer Keesmaat leaving after five years at the helm. She’s leaving on her own terms, and was asked to stay on by Mayor John Tory. We have to remember what Toronto was like five years ago-Rob Ford was Mayor, and he had been elected on a platform of reducing city taxes and doing away with some major transportation initiatives. It was a time of great uncertainty for Toronto-Mayor Ford was against a $30 billion dollar transit plan that would over thirty years provide for  six new subway lines, ten light-rail lines plus new bus and street car lines. The plan was to be funded through property tax increases and grants from the Provincial and Federal governments, and was defeated by Council in June of 2012. It was not one of Toronto’s shining moments.
Three months later in September 2012  with a solid consulting background Jennifer Keesmaat was hired  as the Chief City Planner. Jennifer had worked on plans for a range of Canadian cites from Vancouver to Halifax, and was a founding partner of the well-known firm DIALOG. She had a great understanding of the importance of community involvement in her consulting work, contributed generously to conferences, and was a firm supporter of Walk to School programs-she even has a TEDX talk on it.
Keesmaat  besides being a planner has a family and she is  her kids’ mom. She let people know that her kids biked to school, and other people’s kids could too.  With her strong organizational abilities it was no surprise she stepped right in and took on some of the major work that Toronto required. She was pretty fearless and strongly supported  the concepts of good density and walkability for placemaking.  As Christopher Hume with the Toronto Star   states “she  has described mid-rise development,transportation, and waterfront as areas of focus. She has also been a strong proponent of a national urban agenda by calling for an expanded role of the federal government in supporting Canadian cities.”
Jennifer  Keesmaat  felt strongly that the revamping of the Gardiner Expressway, which allowed cars to get into the city more rapidly was a mistake and said so. She raised the debate about what planning was, and she made it something people could understand, and made it okay to talk about the city in a different way. Public meetings held by her were also on twitter and broadcast on the local cable channel. She made talking about the city accessible and cool.  As Hume notes  “she quickly revealed a talent for making people pay attention to issues that normally left them yawning”.
There’s a lot of discussion about Jennifer’s next moves, which may be into the political arena either municipally or federally.  Regardless of that, her plucky take on placemaking, and focus on good city building came at a time when Toronto needed some strong direction, and a person willing to stand up for good planning principles. Jennifer Keesmaat most certainly achieved that.