An Ontario Line town hall is scheduled for April 16

Toronto-Danforth Councilor Paula Fletcher and Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Trustee Sarah Ehrhardt will hold a virtual community consultation on Tuesday, April 16 to discuss Ontario Line construction that will affect the development of the diverse Transit Community (TOC) in the ward.

The meeting starts at 7pm and will focus on plans for the Pape Avenue area from Cosburn to Danforth avenues.

An Infrastructure Ontario initiative, TOC aims to diversify housing options by creating mixed-use communities around transit stations. The Ontario Line subway is proposed to have stations at Cosburn and Danforth avenues and Pape and Danforth avenues. A stop at Pape and Danforth will connect with the TTC's existing Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth line) to create a transit hub at that intersection.

Some of Ontario's infrastructure initiatives include the Pape TOC (which offers 439 residential units); and Cosburn TOC, which proposes to deliver 623 homes to the area.

According to Infrastructure Ontario, 35 to 40 per cent of these units will be two or three bedroom units suitable for families. However, there are no concrete plans for the units available as part of these two TOC proposals.

“I've made it clear that IO (Infrastructure Ontario), like city council, needs to prioritize affordable housing in these developments,” Fletcher said in his April 5 newsletter. “There was no obligation to do that.”

In 2022, Ontario Line Technical Advisors (OLTA), on behalf of Metrolinx (the provincial transit agency that builds the Ontario Line) and IO, filed a zoning bylaw amendment application for the Pape TOC.

The application is for the redevelopment of properties at 670-710 Danforth Avenue, 2-16 Eaton Avenue, 1-21 Lipton Avenue and 11-15 Gertrude Square.

These properties will be redeveloped into a 29-storey mixed-use building and a seven-storey building connected by a pedestrian bridge on the southern section. On the north side of the proposal would be another seven-story building.

Pape TOC IO offers 2,150 square meters of retail space that will “help support local economic development”.

Around Ontario Lines' future Cosburn Station, Ontario Infrastructure is proposing to redevelop 1002-1052 Pape Avenue and 103-109 Cosburn Avenue into two mixed-use buildings. This TOC project consists of two buildings (29 and 28 stories) at the northwest and southwest corners of Pape and Cosburn avenues. It is also expected to provide 2,200 square meters of retail space.

These two transit-oriented communities will create more than 100 jobs in total, according to Infrastructure Ontario.

Metrolinx has now expropriated the Pape TOC and Cosburn TOC properties for construction of the Ontario Line. Once the Ontario line is complete, the properties “will be handed over to Infrastructure Ontario and the developer they choose,” Fletcher said.

Complementing the development plans for the intersection of Pape and Danforth is a proposed 49-story mixed-use residential building on the northeast corner. This building was first presented in July 2002. The proposed building consists of 496 residential units consisting of 38 studio apartments, 324 one-bedroom units, 84 two-bedroom units and 50 three-bedroom units. There will also be indoor and outdoor seating on the sixth and seventh floors of the building.