CAMBRIDGE - A decade or two from now, light rail transit tracks will come down Shantz Hill into Preston and across the Speed River.

And an Ion station will await the LRT on a block of land where eight houses and a handful of businesses now stand.

That's the region's plan for Phase 2 of the project.

Cambridge city council, by a vote of 7-2 at planning committee on Tuesday night, approved of the latest revised version of the LRT path into the city.

"This is not the best route," Coun. Mike Mann, who represents a Preston ward. "This is not what we want. But it's better than what we had."

Previous potential routes had impacted 60 more properties and would result in 70 more property buyouts than this one.

That will have to go down as a Cambridge victory.

"I wish we could get the perfect route," Mann said.

So while the first phase of LRT prepares to begin running trains through Kitchener and Waterloo, Cambridge is eager to get in on the action.

Still the LRT, pegged to cost $1.3-billion, could be decades away. But setting the route is a huge step toward LRT certainty in Cambridge.

"The LRT is essential to our future growth," Mayor Kathryn McGarry said. "We have seen already what the impact to Kitchener-Waterloo has been with the LRT there, and it's not running yet. They have seen billions of dollars of investment."

Others on the council agree.

"We've seen what it's done for Kitchener and Waterloo," Coun. Shannon Adshade said. "We're already falling behind."

The Preston block that is tagged to host an LRT station - bounded by King Street, Eagle Street, Queenston Road and Chopin Drive - will see tracks cut diagonally across the property. Those homes and businesses may face buyouts or possible expropriations in the future.

"We don't require all the properties on the block," said Matthew O'Neil, the region's senior project manager for rapid transit.

But they will need some. And some residents still don't like the plans.

"It isn't right yet," Diane Moyes said. "The destruction that we are all concerned about is still here."

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jhicks@therecord.com

Twitter: @HicksJD