A Scarborough community group says it will fight any attempt by the province to seize property from eight homeowners and a local park to widen Hwy. 401 and ease a traffic bottleneck that's plagued drivers for years.

The eight homes are on Marilake Drive, close to the 401's westbound lanes. The homes are adjacent to a stretch of the highway — from Neilson Road to Warden Avenue — that's routinely jammed during the morning rush.

The C.D. Farquharson Community Association says it has served notice on the provincial Ministry of Transportation (MTO) that it plans to fight the expropriations for the project, which is slated to get underway next year.

The eight backyards are separated from the westbound 401 by a sound barrier. (Mike Smee/CBC News)

"Some of these neighbours have invested a great deal of money in making their backyards attractive," said Sheila White, a spokesperson for the community association. "There's one property where they have a beautiful garden shed and a rose garden, and that'll all be ripped up for the sake of accommodating drivers from out of town."

The ministry confirmed to CBC Toronto that it has identified eight properties on Marilake "from which MTO may require the acquisition of a small portion of backyards adjacent to Highway 401 (up to 4.6 m)."

A four-metre strip of nearby McDiarmid Woods Park may also be cut back to accommodate the widened 401. (Mike Smee/CBC News)

Adding a collector lane to the westbound 401 would also require shaving back McDairmid Woods Park, next to the homes, which has also angered the community group.

However, the MTO statement also said: "The design team is reviewing options to reduce or eliminate the need to obtain portions of the residential properties."

White says she has already notified the MTO's consultant that her group will speak against the expropriations when public consultations begin.

'We want our green space'

"We want our trees and we want our green space and we want our backyards protected ... We don't want to be the only community in all of Toronto that's asked to make a sacrifice," she said.

But a Toronto municipal law expert says there may be little recourse for the homeowners.

"The province has the ultimate coercive power of the state, which is to go in and actually take someone's land from them," John Mascarin, a lawyer with Aird and Berlis, told CBC Toronto. "Land that someone owns freely and otherwise would be entitled to the quiet enjoyment of their land, the province can go in and take it."

John Mascarin, a Toronto municipal law expert, says the province may have the last word if it decides to press ahead with expropriations. (CBC)

Mascarin says although homeowners who lose parts of their yards would be entitled to compensation, in the end, the province can argue that the need to widen the 401 is paramount.

"Sometimes the private interest is trumped by the communal or societal benefit," he said.