Councillor Josh Matlow says his residents want a do-over on the Oxford Properties Group’s $2.5-billion redevelopment proposal on the Canada Square site at the southwest corner of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue.

Before the city’s planning department rules on rezoning, the midtown councillor wants a “special study area report” that would reconsider Oxford’s December application.

He is asking council to approve a report that would gather input from a committee of residents’ and tenants’ associations, businesses, community groups and neighbouring councillors, who would work with planning and other city departments to look at the community services, affordable housing, space and economic-development requirements of the area.

Oxford announced in December that it wanted to add 2,700 homes, most of them rental, and 650,000 square feet of office space in five towers at the key intersection of the new Eglinton Crosstown LRT and Yonge subway. The 9.2-acre site plan included a covered outdoor area, street-level shops and a community centre that could house a daycare, recreation space or other services.

At the time, Matlow welcomed the revitalization but said there was still work to be done. This week, he said that Oxford’s application wasn’t well received by the community: Objections ranged from the proposed height of the towers to the absence of creative ideas that were discussed but didn’t materialize in the planning application.

Add to that, he said, the area’s “inarguable” need of a new school.

“There was hardly any real public services or community benefits baked into the (Oxford) plan. There’s a minuscule space for a daycare,” he said. “The community benefit component felt like tokenism. That’s what really got people upset.”

Canada Square is an ideal location for a new school, said Toronto District School Board Trustee Shelley Laskin.

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