The recent purchase of two North York properties to be razed to make room for the Yonge Street ring road has one Toronto councillor fuming.
“For us to spend $15 million over the last few years on expropriating houses is absolutely ludicrous,” said Coun. Rob Ford. “It’s just a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
The two houses, located at 30 and 31 Churchill Ave., were purchased to make way for a section of the North York City Centre Service Road. The roughly two-decade-old planned traffic route was adapted to facilitate increased traffic created over the years by development in the North York city centre. When completed, the ring road will run around Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue.
“It is going to reduce congestion in the area,” said Pascoal D’Souza, the city’s manager of traffic planning and right-of-way management. While the exact cost of acquiring the homes was not released, the price tag of the properties was “over a million dollars each,” according to Ford, who said that more transparency on these deals was necessary.
“I don’t believe they should be in secret meetings,” he said. “I think the public should know [how] tax money’s being spent.” Coun. John Filion said that rules pertaining to the city’s acquisition of properties are strict.
“Whatever the city paid for it is its market value, no more, no less,” he said of the purchased houses. “The city isn’t allowed to pay in excess of market value.” Filion added that “the vast majority” of money for costs associated with the road’s construction have come from developers who have built in the North York city centre.
Filion added that the North York city centre, which he called “a gold mine,” creates revenue for the city far in excess of any cost borne by the city’s taxpayers for the road. D’Souza said that construction on the section between Kempford Avenue and Ellerslie Avenue is expected to begin later this year or early next year.