TIMING UNCERTAIN FOR PROMISED NEW ROAD

People in Scarborough's Metrogate community can look forward to new ways out of their isolated neighbourhood, but these might take a decade or more to build.

The enclave of condominium towers and townhouses east of Kennedy Road, wedged between two rail corridors and Highway 401, has just one entrance, and more highrises and other development is planned to the north around Cowdray Court and Agincourt Mall.

Residents — there are more than 12,000, including 400 at the former Delta Hotels by Marriott Toronto East, now a homeless shelter — have for years appealed for a second entrance, saying accidents at Kennedy and Village Green Square effectively trap people in the community.

Two more condo towers will be completed in Metrogate this year and two others are planned, Agincourt Village Community Association President Rhoda Potter told Toronto's Infrastructure and Environment Committee on March 20.

"Intensification happened; road improvements did not happen. Why were nine condominiums allowed to be built with only one entrance in and out?" she asked.

City councillors on the committee approved a new "complete street," with single car lanes and cycling tracks in each direction, reaching Sheppard by extending Gordon Avenue south beside Cowdray and under the CP Rail line to Village Green.

Also approved because of the Southwest Agincourt Transportation Connections Study was a multi-use trail connecting Metrogate under a West Highland Creek rail bridge with Collingwood Park, Sheppard and the newly refurbished Agincourt GO Station.

But though this pleases Potter and Metrogate residents the new connections — costing perhaps $41.5 million for the street and $800,000 to $1 million for the trail — is not in the city's capital plan for 2023 to 2032.

Pressed by councillors during the March 20 meeting, staff could not confirm the city, which has submitted an environmental assessment for the projects, will build them within the next 10 years.