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Urban Planning

Toronto Master Plan

A living map of the Greater Toronto Area, and the base for my own master plan for the city.

Tools & Technologies

MapLibre GL PMTiles Protomaps OpenStreetMap
#toronto #maps #urban-planning
Open the map

The idea

Toronto Master Plan is my personal urban-planning project: a public map of the Greater Toronto Area that I’ll use to sketch how I’d shape the region, from transit and density to streets and parks.

Stage 1: a fast base map

Before drawing any plans, I needed a map that is fast to load, easy to move around in, and cheap to host. It should also feel as smooth as Apple Maps.

  • One small file for the inner GTA. The map data is a single PMTiles file cut from OpenStreetMap, covering the built-up inner GTA: Mississauga and Brampton to Pickering, and the lakeshore to Richmond Hill and Markham. It’s about 32 MB in total, but your browser only downloads the few tiles on screen.
  • Vector, not images. MapLibre GL draws the map on your device, so it stays crisp at every zoom, rotates and tilts, and shows buildings in 3D up close.
  • Self-hosted. Tiles, fonts and icons are all served from this site, with no API keys and no third-party tile service.
  • Light and dark. The colours follow your system or the site’s theme toggle.

What’s next

Planning layers: existing transit, proposed lines, zoning, and my own proposals on top.