There's a push to try and slow down or stop plans to wipe out the blueprint for Toronto's waterfront re-vitalization.

A group of 148 planners, designers, and engineers have penned a letter to city council asking them to vote against a plan to seize control of the Port Lands from Waterfront Toronto and rubber stamp Team Ford's vision along the lake.

Rob and Doug Ford, mayor and councillor, want to see the Port Lands transformed with a mega-mall, a five star hotel, a monorail, and a giant ferris wheel.

But inside the letter the academics say going back on the work of Waterfront Toronto is reckless and would hurt the city forever.

They say working with Waterfront Toronto would result in lower costs for developers because much of the environmental work will have already been done and selling the land now will mean less money for the city because it will be worth less.

The Waterfront Toronto vision sees the area as a mixed use community with a variety of residental and commercial space, along with park land. 

The letter suggests to council that the Ford vision is a recycled 1960s way of thinking and that the lower Don Lands are not Disneyworld.