Transit-oriented communities (TOCs) built along Doug Ford's pet project subway lines have generated their fair share of controversy, but the latest TOC proposal planned above a future subway intersection is under fire for a very different reason.

People don't think this development is big enough.

A plan to develop a new building above and next to the forthcoming Pape Station expansion for the Ontario Line — linking it to the existing Line 2 — is being picked apart by critics on social media, who argue that more density is needed at this future intersection of two subway lines.

The Pape TOC is actually being proposed as two separate developments, though both feature matching designs from architects SvN, and will march through the City's planning and approvals process in unison.

The proposal for Infrastructure Ontario calls for a seven-storey building to the north of the existing Pape Station on Line 2, on Gertrude Place, and side-by-side 29- and seven-storey buildings to the south of the station along Danforth Avenue.

Over 30 homes and businesses along Danforth, Lipton, and Eaton Avenues would be torn down to make way for the complex, which is expected to add 439 residential units and 2,150 square metres of new retail space concentrated along Danforth Avenue.

Locals in their quaint tree-lined low-rise neighbourhoods may think the proposal is too much for the community, but an even more vocal contingent suggests that more should be built at a site destined to have some of the highest transit capacity in the country, rivalling the connectivity of Bloor-Yonge Station.

Commenters argue that the plan doesn't provide enough density for a future intersection of two subway lines and caters to the fears of the privileged low-rise homeowners in the area.

Despite being on an interchange of two subway lines, the height and density of this site is much less than other TOC proposals. Transitions to low rise neighbourhoods (which are artificially kept low density) are being prioritized over housing and funds for transit. pic.twitter.com/9GI7gUdeXz

— More Transit Southern Ontario (@MoreTransitSO) March 5, 2024

Urban planner Blair Scorgie called the proposal "timid," while the Globe and Mail's architecture critic Alex Bozikovic called the proposal a "scandal," shooting down its the proposed use of "Public land at a subway interchange, in a low-density, shrinking, wealthy neighbourhood."

This is a scandal. Public land at a subway interchange, in a low-density, shrinking, wealthy neighborhood. And yet Toronto’s NIMBY policy is shaping the future. https://t.co/hOanNjqv5J

— Alex Bozikovic (@alexbozikovic) March 5, 2024

One prominent online critic has even proposed an alternative plan for the site with two high-rise towers.

Everyone is rightly pissed about this. So what *could* be done? The site is huge, so here's a very quick & dirty idea for:
1 floor retail, transit, BoH
2 floors community centre & library
2 floors office(?)
1 floor amenity
2 x 55 storey towers (@ 10 units / floor = ~1100 units) https://t.co/1ezcAlMmB9 pic.twitter.com/tE4eEmjkkU

— Urban Cayman (@ProjectEND) March 6, 2024

The province has boasted at every opportunity that it is building Toronto up for continued population growth, though planning policies reluctant to challenge the character of established neighbourhoods are often at odds with these housing target goals.

A quote from Infrastructure Ontario on a newly launched website for the development stresses how the development "would fit surrounding current and future neighbourhood conditions," addressing local conditions with "a series of stepbacks [that] would provide a transition in height and density toward the main street."