The amendments to the July 2018 agreement also include a provision to terminate after three months if “certain threshold issues” outlined by Stephen Diamond, Waterfront Toronto’s board chair, are not addressed. Andrew Tumilty, media relations at Waterfront Toronto, told The Logic that certain areas of Sidewalk Labs’ Master Innovation and Development Plan (MIDP), released at the end of June, are “non-starters” for the corporation. The extension was decided on after a “series of discussions” between the two companies—though there was no formal meeting—and both parties “agreed on everything collaboratively.” The parties “felt it made sense to create a deadline for the resolution of major outstanding issues before significant parts of that evaluation process commence,” said Keerthana Rang, communications associate at Sidewalk Labs. (The Logic)

Talking point: The notice posted by Waterfront Toronto on Thursday announcing the extension and additional provision links to Diamond’s open letter from late June, when Sidewalk Labs’ MIDP was released. The letter addressed a number of early “concerns,” including the expansion of the plan beyond the 12 acres of the Quayside neighbourhood, and Sidewalk Labs’ proposal to extend public transit. That extra land has been a point of contention between the two parties. “Now, [if] at the end of the day people don’t want us to do something beyond Quayside, that’s entirely fair. It doesn’t mean we’ll want to do Quayside, though,” Dan Doctoroff, Sidewalk Labs CEO, told the Financial Post in late June. The Logic’s editor, David, noted in June that there have been tensions between Doctoroff and Diamond. If a consensus can’t be reached on this and other points of disagreement, the smart-city neighbourhood could be no more as of October 31.