The Keele Finch Secondary Plan currently before Toronto Council, a plan that proposed major increases in population density for our neighbourhood, turns a blind eye to the main planning and safety challenges this community faces.
The time has come to remove the massive oil storage tank farms operated by the oil industry north of Finch Avenue from Dufferin to Keele Street. It is inconceivable that the city would build two intersecting rapid transit lines in the middle of an oil storage depot.
The tank farms were built in the 1940s. They store fuel that supplies local filling stations throughout the GTA. They are located along the Trans Canada Pipeline which runs under the hydro corridor north of Finch Avenue. Petroleum products brought in by pipeline leave the area by tanker truck. This results in heavy oil truck movements along major arterial roads, most of which make their way to highways #400 westward along Finch Ave W. or south to highway #401 either along Keele Street or West to the Allan Road via Finch or Chesswood. Heavy truck movements often clog the arterial roads and chew up the pavement. A fully loaded tandem oil tanker weighs some 42 Tonnes.
In July 2010, after heavy lobbying from the oil industry, a TTC report recommended that the City Council lift the 1954 bylaw prohibiting oil tanker trucks from driving over the subway, because it conflicted with the construction of the York-University subway extension. There was no way that oil truck movements could avoid the intersection of Finch and Keele. As chair of the TTC I held up that report for two months but in the end I had to let the issue go. The tank farms were not going to be moved and it was either bend the rules or don't build the subway.
Parallel to the Keele/Finch Secondary plan there is a study being undertaken on the movement of goods in North-West Toronto. I proposed an alternative route for oil truck movements which involved the diverting them to highway #400 via Steeles Avenue. Movements south to highway #401 would be by way of the abandoned York University busway which cost us $37M to build and runs directly through the tank farms. I understand that these recommendations are being ignored by the planning group undertaking this study.
If the Keele Finch secondary plan is to have any validity whatsoever it cannot ignore the entire north-east quadrant of this intersection. It must include a plan for decommissioning the tank farms and the future development of these lands. There could not be a better time to do this. Big changes are about to happen in North York. Downsview airport has been sold. Closing the runway will lift the height restrictions on all of the west end. The enhanced value of the tank farmlands will more than offset the cost of removing the tanks. They could be relocated anywhere along the trans Canada pipeline. Dufferin Street will be extended north along the present runway to hook up to Chesswood and there will be major developments proposed around the new Downsview Subway Station.
Learn more about the Keele-Finch plans and its history here: https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/planning-studies-initiatives/keele-finch-plus/keele-finch-plus-studies-reports/