A pilot project that will see Church Street pedestrianized for the summer begins Friday.
The project was approved by Toronto City Council back in May and sees Church between Wellesley Street East and Alexander Street closed to traffic from June 19 to August 21.
All east-west corridors will remain open to vehicular traffic.
The closure will officially begin at 4 p.m.
The hope is to boost local businesses and help with increased foot traffic during major events, including Pride Month. The Toronto Pride Parade will be happening next Sunday.
Although the City and local businesses are hoping to see this project continue in the future, City Council does have the authority to shut down the project at any time if needed.
Area Councillor Chris Moise tells CityNews that staff will be collecting data and community feedback, with a formal debrief of the project planned for November.
“We are working with 8 80 Cities to actually do street counts and get feedback from community and businesses, as well as transportation services, and departments will be keeping an eye as well,” said Moise.
“So we’ll re-evaluate for what works and what doesn’t work. I don’t want this to be a one-and-done deal. I want this to continue next year and the years to come as well.”
Councillor Moise adds that this project was inspired by other cities that have done similar closures along busy downtown stretches.
In Montreal, they’ve reportedly seen an increase to businesses around 83 per cent on pedestrianized streets.