As the TTC prepares to hand over its faded property at Yonge and Eglinton to the city’s development agency, Build Toronto, the local city councillor says he’s afraid it might be the first step in a redevelopment plan that would bulldoze one approved by city council in 2009.

The TTC board will consider a proposal Wednesday to declare surplus its portion of the southwest block of the midtown intersection.

Build Toronto wants to redevelop that site before the Eglinton-Scarborough Crosstown LRT opens in about eight or nine years, when it will become a major transit hub, said TTC chief financial and administrative officer Vince Rodo.

A Los Angeles architect has even been scheduled to speak at this week’s Toronto Transit Commission meeting about the varieties of transit-based developments that have been built around the world.

“Build Toronto would like nothing better than to redevelop that whole block so, the day the Eglinton LRT is opened, you’ve got a redeveloped block to go together with it,” said Rodo.

The TTC could even consider relocating its head office there if there’s sufficient space available when it needs to be out of its current Davisville headquarters. The current building needs $25 million to $35 million worth of improvements, and the TTC would like to consolidate more of its staff, now scattered in leased properties around the city, under one roof.

But Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22, St. Paul’s) is worried that Build wants a much denser development than was approved by council in 2009. Instead of 20- to 40-storey buildings, “What they are proposing is 60 storeys right on the corner and then redeveloping Canada Square into a 55-storey hotel,” he said.

After hearing that Build officials had met with Mayor Rob Ford’s office earlier this year, Matlow said he also asked for a meeting. He was shown plans that included a pedestrian bridge over Eglinton Ave., something he doesn’t favour because it shadows the street. The plans also lack a public plaza, he said.

“Every great city ensures there’s some public realm at transit hubs so it becomes a destination. Yonge and Eglinton, for decades, has been developed very poorly. It’s become a concrete-and-glass window tunnel. We need to do better than that. We need to create people-friendly spaces to create a destination,” Matlow said.

Build officials say all plans are preliminary.

“We are at the very early stages of a long process that will take three to five years before the first development will be started on the site,” said Bruce Logan, vice-president of corporate affairs and operations.

“This is a process that will include significant due diligence and feasibility studies, as well as the review of numerous concepts to consider various scenarios on mixed-use, on high-order transit, density, transportation connections and public space. At this preliminary stage any discussion regarding the development is premature,” he said in an email to the Toronto Star.

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TTC chair Karen Stintz, the councillor for Eglinton-Lawrence, said she has seen a “high-level conceptual plan,” by Build that isn’t consistent with the zoning or council’s approved plan for the block.

But because the ownership is so complicated, with some private holdings in the area as well as air rights scattered among different owners, it’s likely to take at least five years before anything could be built.

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