Spadina Expressway - 1963-69: Construction

1963-69: Construction

By 1963, costs had risen to over $73 million CAD for the plan. Metro, which was also constructing the Gardiner Expressway, Don Valley Parkway and Bloor-Danforth subway lines had fallen under the scrutiny of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) over its spending. The OMB had to approve the 1963 budget before Metro could. The Spadina was separated from the 1963 budget, and the OMB held hearings into the project. In submissions to the OMB, the townships of Forest Hill and York again objected. CCTTRA, and the CCTRA noted its objections:

• produce air pollution,
• be useless without a crosstown expressway,
• destroy parkland and homes,
• provide a private shopping plaza with a magnificent entrance and easy access to Highway 401 at public expense, and
• increase an already heavy tax burden.

Allan Ackman, of the Wellesley-Bloor Street ratepayers asked "what compensation is there for all the people will be exposed to the deadly poisonous clouds of fumes from the cars on it?" The Cedarvale ratepayers had obtained the advice of Lewis Mumford on matters of town planning and stated that the expressway was of no use without the canceled Crosstown. Publisher Allan Perly objected to Yorkdale being such a beneficiary. The Deer Park ratepayers objected on the increases of taxation. The OMB upheld the Spadina project. The OMB stated in its decision that the "sectional interest must give way to the public need of the larger area." On the issue of the ravine parklands, the OMB stated "The board should and does expect that any park land that may be lost to York Township as a result of this undertaking will be replaced, insofar as may be possible in the circumstances, by suitable alternative lands for that purpose."

Construction started in 1963 with clearing of lands. In 1964, Metro released another transportation plan, which extended the Spadina south of Bloor, again requiring the demolition of homes south of Davenport. Toronto City Council adopted an Official Plan opposing the Crosstown Expressway and the Christie Expressway completely. Ontario's Minister of Municipal Affairs overruled the city, and modified the city's Plan to allow for the construction of both expressways. The City and Metro were now in disagreement.

In 1966, the section from Lawrence Avenue north to Wilson Avenue opened. Construction then started on the section south to Eglinton Avenue. York Council had dropped its opposition to the expressway and made an agreement with Metro on the use of Cedarvale Park for the expressway. This agreement provided for the creation of 12 acres (4.9 ha) of park lands in the Borough of York to replace the park lands lost to the expressway trench. This plan would have meant the expropriation of homes for the replacement lands and residents of York protested the plan to the Council. The cost of the expropriation plan was an estimated $4 million of construction, plus the loss of the assessment, while putting a cover over the roadway within the park would have cost $5 million. The opposition led Metro to agree to building the expressway within a tunnel under the park.

As construction proceeded, opposition to the expressway grew among City of Toronto residents. In October 1969, the "Stop Spadina, Save Our City Co-ordinating Committee" (SSSOCCC) was formed, under the chairmanship of University of Toronto professor Allan Powell. The group was a coalition of students, academics, politicians, ratepayer groups and business people. Notable among the opposition was urban theorist Jane Jacobs, who moved to the Annex in 1969, fresh from a battle to stop the Lower Manhattan Expressway in New York City. Marshall McLuhan, too, was opposed to the expressway and said: "Toronto will commit suicide if it plunges the Spadina Expressway into its heart... our planners are 19th century men with a naive faith in an obsolete technology. In an age of software Metro planners treat people like hardware — they haven't the faintest interest in the values of neighborhoods or community. Their failure to learn from the mistakes of American cities will be ours too." In the 1969 civic election, three councilors were elected in Toronto on a platform of immediately ending Spadina construction: Ying Hope, William Kilborn and John Sewell.