Mayor John Tory has a warning for Ontario’s transit agency: don’t touch Osgoode Hall.
The mayor issued the stern message Tuesday in response to a plan from Metrolinx to tear up a corner of the historic building’s grounds for construction of an entrance for a new Ontario Line subway station.
Metrolinx, which is the provincial Crown corporation responsible for transit expansion in the GTA, says it has determined the site at the northeast corner of University Avenue and Queen Street West is the best option from a transit and engineering perspective.
The new station will connect with the existing Osgoode stop on the TTC’s Line 1, and is projected to be one of the busiest on the 15-station, $11-billion Ontario Line. By 2041, 12,000 people an hour will use the new stop at its busiest times, according to Metrolinx, and it needs to be big enough for large volumes of people to move in and out.
But Tory said there has to be a way to complete the project without encroaching on Osgoode Hall, whose landscaped grounds and cast iron gates have housed provincial courts and the Law Society of Ontario for more than 170 years.
Speaking to reporters at an unrelated event, the normally cool-headed mayor appeared fired up as he slammed the proposal, which he said Metrolinx hadn’t consulted him on.
“I’m all for building transit but I can tell you right now, ‘Hands off Osgoode Hall premises,’” he said.
The major argued the front lawn of the property is worth preserving because it’s “one of the few patches of green in the downtown” and is attached to a historic site. He said he was confident Metrolinx could use modern engineering techniques to “find a way to have a subway entrance without messing around with that park.”
“I will just say to Metrolinx… that’s not on. They can find a different way,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the city’s planning and housing committee declined to approve a routine zoning change to facilitate construction of the station after hearing from residents and city staff who expressed concerns about the plan’s negative impact on the landmark property, green space and urban tree cover. The Law Society of Ontario, which co-owns Osgoode Hall with the Ontario government, was among those objecting.
The committee voted to ask staff to go back to Metrolinx and discuss potential alternative designs, including a proposal to remove northbound traffic lanes on University to create a pedestrian plaza west of Osgoode Hall where the station entrance could be built.
But Metrolinx showed no signs of changing plans Tuesday. In a statement, agency spokesperson Anne Marie Aikins said the northeast corner of University and Queen is the best site for the station entrance because it would allow for direct transfers with streetcar service, have better pedestrian flows, and avoid conflicts with other buildings and infrastructure in the area.
She said Metrolinx has reviewed the plaza option but determined it would still require disturbing Osgoode Hall grounds. That’s because even if the subway entrance is moved westward, the station itself will still need to be built under the corner of Osgoode Hall to avoid the Line 1 subway.
“The fact that this corner is not occupied by buildings means it’s the only available open space where we can build a shaft that gives us access to the underground construction site,” Aikins said.
She said Metrolinx is committed to working with the city, local residents and heritage experts “to ensure the site is thoughtfully restored once work is finished,” including by planting trees and “reinstating much of the historic fence and cobblestone that lines the area today. ”
The province has the authority to override the city’s objections, and will have final say on the plan.
The law society completed the original Osgoode Hall building in 1832. In addition to housing the Superior Court and Court of Appeal, it is the former site of Osgoode Hall Law School, which moved to York University in 1969. Tory got his law degree there in 1978.
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