KEY FACTS ABOUT THE KODAK SITE
Crosstown connections The western terminus for the Crosstown LRT will serve as a mobility hub, which will connect various transit forms in the same way as Union Station.
The designs are not yet final. But the route from a 15-bus bay TTC terminal to the LRT would include walking down a flight of stairs, travelling about 100 metres and then down a second flight of stairs. The GO transfer to the LRT would be similar. All the connections would be indoors and accessible with elevators. The Union Pearson Express station is integrated with GO. Crosstown timeline The Crosstown is now scheduled to open in 2021. It will run east from Mount Dennis to Kennedy Station, with 25 stations, and the central portion running in a tunnel under Eglinton.
Tunnel-boring machines are burrowing east toward Yonge St. from Eglinton West Station and west from near Brentcliffe Rd. to Yonge.
The LRT will connect with the subway there and at Eglinton West, where the TTC board has voted to change the station name to Cedarvale. Maintenance yard The 23-hectare Kodak site was originally planned only as the location of the maintenance and storage facility, and that will still be part of the plan, accommodating up to 76 light-rail vehicles.
But Metrolinx bowed to community pressure over the site’s historical significance and incorporated some retail into the basement and main floor of the old Kodak building. It is being renovated to conform with its designation by the city as a Heritage Interest building. Power plans A natural-gas-fired power plant will be at the northwest corner of the site. It will be 25 metres wide, 62 metres long and 9 metres tall.
Residents say they were told the plant would be part of the first phase of construction. They would like that changed so there is more time to discuss potentially greener solutions. Community groups are also asking the province and Metrolinx to reconsider adding solar panels. The Crosstown maintenance and storage facility “has the potential to support the largest rooftop solar project in North America,” the groups say. Tess Kalinowski