Gregg Lintern named Toronto’s new chief planner
Challenge of building a livable city amid unprecedented growth on the agenda for veteran city official

TheStar.com
March 28, 2018
Jennifer Pagliaro

A veteran of city planning has been tapped for the top job at city hall.

Gregg Lintern has been named the city’s chief planner following the departure of Jennifer Keesmaat.

Lintern, who first worked as a planner in the pre-amalgamated Etobicoke starting in 1984, has been filling the chief role on an acting basis for the last six months after Keesmaat left in September.

As a community planner who has worked on the ground with development applications for more than three decades, Lintern is well-liked by his staff for knowledge of their role, attention to detail and his understanding of policy at a challenging time when the city is growing at an unprecedented rate.

“We’ve got to imagine a city where a substantially increased number of people are going to live here, perhaps double the number of people we’ve got in the downtown right now,” Lintern said in November during a debate about building a 21-acre park over the downtown rail corridor. “We’ve got to think about the livability for those people.”

Downtown Councillor Joe Cressy, whose Ward 20 (Trinity-Spadina) is one of the fastest growing in the city, said that beyond being a “consummate professional” who brings a wealth of experience, Lintern has an important vision for the city.

“I think that’s no more present than in the downtown where he led the TOcore initiative,” Cressy said. “At the crux of TOcore was the question: How much development can downtown handle and what infrastructure is needed to support that development?”

Cressy said Lintern’s work overseeing the complex development at the former Honest Ed’s site at Bloor and Bathurst streets that includes a public market, park, hundreds of rental units and affordable housing, is a prime example of acting on that vision. Lintern, he said, focused on building a neighborhood at the marquee corner, rather than just focusing on how to build a number of appropriately-sized towers.

Lintern has previously headed community planning for the Etobicoke York district as well as the busy Toronto and East York district.

In that time, he has helped oversee the plan for the downtown core, as well as a similar focus on livable neighbourhoods at the booming Yonge-Eglinton, and remaking the Port Lands.

In 2012, Lintern was also acting chief planner when then deputy mayor Doug Holyday said downtown was no place to raise children.

Lintern told Holyday on the council floor that “it just makes for a healthier city” to have families living downtown. Since then, the city has pursued several strategies to look at the needs of families living in vertical communities.

There are many challenges ahead.

With federal and provincial funding recently announced, the city will be moving forward with expanding its rapid transit network — a plan that includes a relief line subway and a controversial one-stop extension of the Bloor-Danforth line in Scarborough.

“Gregg has the experience and depth of knowledge of this city to guide the planning of Toronto’s future,” Mayor John Tory said in a release from the city.

Lintern also takes over at a time when the Ontario Municipal Board, a quasi-judicial, provincial body that has the final say in many planning matters, is being significantly overhauled.

“The changes proposed by the bill will enable municipalities to focus on adopting planning principles, what we call proactive planning, to address growth and change,” Lintern told a provincial committee he was asked to speak to last year.

The city release said Lintern will initially focus on the transit network expansion, affordable housing, improving the review of development applications, and OMB reforms. He starts April 9.