Local residents protest plans to build Eglinton LRT extension over Toronto park – Toronto | 24CA News

A bunch of residents in York South-Weston are calling on the province to rethink its transit plans within the space, citing issues about how a brand new LRT may alter native parkland.

On Saturday, protestors staged a protest close to the Eglinton Flats, a wetland space and park that provincial transit company Metrolinx plans to run its Eglinton Crosstown West line above.

Much of the western extension is ready to be constructed underground, with the fast transit line surfacing round Eglinton flats, and plans for riders to glide above the park on an elevated observe. That plan, protestors say, is dangerous for historic bushes and the neighbourhood general.

The native resident group is known as Stop the Trains in Our Parks, or STOP for brief.

“The train expressway would run through Eglinton Flats (including Fergy Brown Park), which is some of the most valuable parkland in the city,” its web site explains.

The group raises issues about tree slicing, encroachment into the park and the big tunnel entry and exit ports required to convey the prepare above floor after which beneath once more.

An Indigenous group has additionally raised issues.

In a letter dated Nov. 30, 2022, the Eshkiniigjik Naandwechigegamig, Aabiish Gaa Binjibaaying (ENAGB) Indigenous Youth Agency wrote to the province to complain in regards to the plan.

The letter stated the group had acquired land north of Metrolinx’s deliberate LRT route within the park and was against the aboveground possibility.

“This proposed overpass which will interrupt so many of our traditional activities that we will be hosting for our future generations,” the letter stated, partly. “Indigenous peoples have a natural law that we must continue, which is our role as land stewards of our mother the earth.”

Metrolinx, nonetheless, stated a floodplain designation within the space means operating the service underground can be a logistical nightmare.

“Tunnelling the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension under the Humber River would require excavations for the underground stations at Scarlett-Eglinton and Jane-Eglinton to be up to 30 metres deep, which is as deep as a nine-storey building is tall,” the provincial transit company stated in an announcement.

“This would be more complex, more time-consuming and more disruptive for the community in comparison to an elevated option.”

Metrolinx stated it was “committed to continuing to work with ENAGB” in regards to the points raised by the Indigenous group.

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