There are huge changes in store for the Junction Triangle, but an announcement today that the long vacant lot on Lansdowne Avenue between Bloor and Wallace has been finally been freed up for redevelopment might be the most significant.

The four acre site was the subject of a long dispute between the TTC and General Electric over TCE (trichloroethene) contamination. Vacant since 1997, now that the two parties have settled, the gaping hole in the neighbourhood can finally be reanimated. Anyone who's passed by here in the last nine years will know what a big deal this is.

Perhaps even bigger news for the city as a whole is that the site has been earmarked for affordable housing via the Open Door Program. "I'd like to have a Request for Proposal (RFP) out by the end of the year, beginning of next year," local councillor Ana Bailao said during a press conference this morning. "I think it'll move quite fast."

In other words, there's a long way to go until we see new residential housing here, but the crucial thing is that the gears are finally in motion.

Photo by Brian Cameron in the blogTO Flickr pool.