Ward's Island is the Eastern part of Toronto Island which is located a 10 minute Ferry ride from downtown Toronto.
There are about 300 houses left on the island, the community fought really hard to keep their homes during the 1980's and succeeded in saving the community. Strict legislation was set up along with a Land Trust to ensure that the community remains economically diverse. The houses are not sold on the open market but to a purchasers list and the houses are sold at their assessed value not market value. We bought the house and we have a 99 year lease for the land the house sits on. If we were to sell we have to sell it back to the Land Trust and then it would go too the purchasers list for sale. The list is chronologically ranked. There is no way to sell your spot or buy your way up the list which keeps things fair. It took my wife being on the list for 20 years to buy this house. We live on the waterfront, on a beach, downtown Toronto which we would never ever be able to afford.... we are pretty lucky!
Here's the view from our from gate:
Here's the wiki for Toronto Island if your interested, it's pretty damn cool!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_Islands