Sidewalk Labs' 'Smart Cities' Experiment in Toronto Scaled Way Back

"Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has agreed to scale back and refine its approach to a controversial hi-tech neighbourhood it has proposed for a swath of Toronto’s prime waterfront land," reports Tara Deschamps.

"Instead of developing 190 acres of property, as it announced in June, Sidewalk agreed on Thursday to scale back its plan to the 12 acres it first envisioned in its response to a request for proposals two years ago."

Any future expansion of the experiment would require the company to go through a formal process again, according to Deschamps.

After revealing the master plan for the project in June, Sidewalk Labs received its first feedback from the public on that master plan in July, where concerns about the scale of the project were among the opinions expressed.

[Update: additional coverage from Natalie Wong focuses on the major hurdle toward approval cleared by the project with this news. Sidewalk Labs has also published a blog post to explain the current status of the project.]