The area from Berkeley east to the Don River and north to Queen Street was designated for a large city park.

By the late nineteenth century, most of the land was industrial or owned by the railways, and it became the site of an array of factories and warehouses, including William Davies Company, one of the largest pork processing facilities in the world.

The city proposed creating a new community of 14,000 called Ataratiri to solve Toronto's pressing subsidized housing crisis.

[3] The Ataratiri project was to have consisted of a mix of subsidized and market-priced housing, similar to the development of the St. Lawrence neighborhood further west.

After investing a considerable amount of money purchasing and clearing the site, the project eventually failed to attract private investors.

The industrial history meant the soil was highly polluted and needed expensive cleanup before any residents could live there.

For a time the provincial government considered selling it to a developer who wanted to build a harness racing facility, but local opposition put a halt to it.

In 2001, Ontario Premier Mike Harris pushed for a complete redevelopment of Toronto's waterfront, but mayor Mel Lastman objected to the idea of removing parts of the Gardiner Expressway.

[7] Redevelopment plans include extensive integration with Toronto transit routes and 23 acres (9.3 ha) of public greenspace.

The new Corktown Common is to be the recreational core of the project, linking the Don Valley Discovery Walk to the Toronto waterfront.

The location is central to providing improved non-vehicular access from throughout the city to hundreds of thousands of pedestrians, cyclists, inline skaters and mobility scooter users.

This changed in 2009 when it was announced that the West Don Lands would be the home of the athlete's village for the 2015 Pan American Games.

[2] In August 2012, Toronto Mayor Ford officially opened Underpass Park, a new public space in the West Don Lands district.