TTC letter warns homeowners their houses might be expropriated for Scarborough subway
Subway extension’s path not official, yet residents get notices that their houses might be taken. One warns: ‘I’m not going, they’re going to kill me to take me out of here.”

TheStar.com
May 31, 2016
San Grewal

Residents on a quiet Scarborough street, some who have lived there for four decades, have received letters from the TTC warning them their houses might be expropriated to make room for the new subway extension.

“I’m not going, they’re going to kill me to take me out of here,” Scott Cole said Monday, after receiving a letter on May 25 from the “Toronto Transit Commission” informing him that the bungalow he’s lived in on Stanwell Dr. for 26 years might be subject to a “Property Acquisition Process.”

There has been no official approval of the subway alignment — running north-south under McCowan Rd., which the homes back onto — that would affect these homeowners, but they’re now convinced it’s a done deal.

The letter says this particular alignment will be presented at a public meeting Tuesday, the first in a series of meetings planned over the next three weeks. However, the letter, received by at least a dozen neighbours, says no decision has yet been made by council, and the recommendation has not even been seen by the City of Toronto’s executive committee.

“Staff will report their recommendations for the Scarborough Subway Extension (including property impacts),” the letter states, adding that the “meeting date (is) still to be confirmed.” The letter states that the TTC board will receive the recommendations July 11 and Toronto City Council on July 12, 13 and 14.

“I love this place,” said resident Vivek Bhatt. “I’ve been here 14 years. My kids grew up here.”

Bhatt said he won’t accept less than $2 million for his property from the city, but was adamant that he is only interested in expropriation as a last resort. “I don’t want to leave.”

The letter states that the city will undertake property-value assessments to make sure fair offers are made to each owner.

He said that in his opinion, the process of selecting an alignment — despite the lack so far of public meetings or a council vote — has already been made. “Obviously. Do you think they would do all this, send all this out, do all this planning, unless they already made their decision?” he said, holding up the eight-page package he received.

He vowed to make sure local Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, who has been staunchly pro-subway and sits on the TTC board, will not be re-elected in 2018. De Baeremaeker could not be reached for comment.

TTC spokesman Brad Ross said the agency sent less than 100 notices to homeowners in the potential path of the future line, alerting them that all or part of their land might need to be expropriated.

The final alignment for the heavily debated extension of the Bloor-Danforth line has yet to be confirmed, but it’s expected to run between Kennedy station and the Scarborough Town Centre. Council is scheduled to approve an alignment this year, with construction set to begin in 2018; the line wouldn’t enter service until 2023.

The letter, shown to the Star by three residents, includes detailed satellite images of each specific property, with lines indicating where the subway tunnel will run and where the adjacent rights-of-way will be located.

Cole says his property “is going to be turned into a parking lot, for all the trucks and equipment to build the subway,” according to his letter.

Only six feet of his rear yard is needed for the project, according to the detailed map and drawings he received. He questions what will be done with the rest of the land being expropriated. Ross said it’s possible that not all of a required property will be needed — it’s unclear if only parts of properties might be expropriated in some cases.

“In my opinion, they’re just going to sell all of this to big developers and make tens of millions of dollars,” Cole said.

He said he was given one year to live after he was diagnosed with cancer 14 years ago, and is now ready for a much easier fight.

“I don’t want anything they could offer me, $2 million, $3 million. This is my home. I’m staying, whether they like it or not.”