York South-Weston Councillor Frances Nunziata and the Mount Dennis Community Association will host a meeting Monday, Dec. 14 to discuss the Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit's (LRT) impact on the Mount Dennis community.
"As it stands now it will be built above ground and this will impact residents and businesses on the north side of Eglinton Avenue and west of Weston Road because they'll have to widen Eglinton Avenue," Nunziata said, adding TTC staff will be on hand at the meeting. "This is really serious. Properties will be hugely impacted and some will have to be expropriated. I feel it's important to have this meeting because the plans need to be explained to property owners."Current plans call for the central section between Laird Drive and Keele Street to operate underground. The TTC is proposing an underground LRT through this section because the width of Eglinton Avenue is too narrow to accommodate LRT. For the rest of Eglinton Avenue, the light rail vehicles would operate at surface, in dedicated transit lanes separated from traffic. This 33-kilometre corridor will provide LRT service across Eglinton Avenue from Kennedy subway station to Martin Grove Road to Lester B. Pearson International Airport.The light rail line will connect with Kennedy station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line, Eglinton station on the Yonge subway line and Eglinton West station on the Spadina subway line. The line will also connect with the future Jane, Don Mills and Scarborough-Malvern light rail corridors. Mark Dieu, a 30-year resident of Mount Dennis, said many residents would prefer the track be built underground to avoid noise, traffic and quality of life disruptions. "Our community doesn't want a train to run right in the middle of Eglinton Avenue every five to 10 minutes," he said. "It will disturb the peace of our community and will make it unsafe for pedestrians."Dieu said building the LRT above ground along Eglinton would have detrimental effects on the community."We want it underground so it will have no effect on the neighbourhood," he said, noting it would cost more to build the line underground, but it would save businesses and homeowners from potential disaster.The meeting will take place at the Salvation Army, 1100 Weston Rd., south of Eglinton Avenue West, at 7 p.m.The meeting was originally scheduled to be held at the Mount Dennis Legion but has been moved to the Salvation Army.