Downsview Airport closed for good in April 2024, and while planes no longer taxi along the former military base, a new community with impressive towers will soon take flight from the runway and surrounding lands.

Canada Lands Company (CLC) submitted plans last week for its Downsview West District Plan, the company's third community planned on the vast Downsview lands.

Located just northwest of the runway and adjacent to the Downsview Park TTC/GO station and Downsview Park, the project will put thousands of residents in proximity to the twinned transit stations.

Billed as one of the largest transit-oriented communities ever built in Toronto, the Downsview West District Plan will span 30 hectares, or almost 75 acres, and is planned to host a staggering 8,800 homes for a projected 17,000 residents.

These homes represent fewer than half of the total 22,000 housing units proposed across the four districts of CLC's Downsview lands, an ambitious goal to transform this sparse area of the city into one of Toronto's most densely populated pockets of development.

The transformative project comes at a time when the condo market faces an unprecedented glut of units, while, at the same time, demand for rental units is high and the need for affordable housing is more desperate than ever. 

CLC is proposing a significant component of affordable housing for the site, with 20 per cent of the total units designated as affordable, making this one of the most significant contributions of affordable units from a single project in the city's history.

To help address rental shortages, the developer is partnering up with the City on its Rental Housing Supply Program, designed to improve the availability of rental units in Toronto.

Stéphan Déry, President and CEO of Canada Lands Company, calls the project "A complete community built for families, climate resilience, transportation, jobs and amenities," and promises it will "deliver more housing with affordability and diversity in mind."

In addition to its ambitious housing goals, the Downsview West District Plan is also aiming for some lofty sustainability targets, with a plan to achieve net-zero carbon operation by 2040.

CLC's silver bullet in attaining this target will be the less than five-minute walk between the site and the Downsview Park TTC/GO station for most residents of the community.

The developer envisions that this transit access will allow for 75 percent of trips to and from the community to be made by walking, cycling, or transit. Supporting this goal, a network of over one kilometre of off-street pedestrian and cycling paths will carve through the site, along with over nine acres of parks and open spaces.

Among the paths through the site, the Aanikoobijiganag Miikana (Ancestors' trail), is a notable standout, planned to stretch 800 metres and link pedestrians to the transit hub, lined with Indigenous art and installations.

CLC's sustainability plan for the site also calls for an innovative green infrastructure system that will recycle rainwater and use the design of its private and public land to help manage stormwater.

The four districts that will be overseen by CLC will be joined by neighbouring lands being redeveloped by Northcrest Developments, with the two companies working together on a broader vision for the site that has been evolving since the pair submitted their master plan for the site back in 2021.