One of Toronto's largest single tracts of land could be on the verge of a dramatic transformation. According to CBC News, Woodbine Racetrack is looking to develop the land around its facility for mixed-use purposes, in a plan that could reshape the Rexdale neighbourhood and add a vast new community to the city's northwest corner.
The scale of the proposal is what sets it apart. The project has been described as a city within a city, and observers noted that it would be hard to find another example of a development at the level being discussed here, given the sheer size of what is being contemplated on the site.
At the centre of the vision is a large amount of new housing. The mixed-use development could include up to 25,000 homes once it is completed, a figure that would make a significant dent in a city grappling with a shortage of housing, while horse racing would remain as a major selling point for the revamped lands.
The property itself has deep roots in the area. For 70 years, the 680-acre parcel of land has been home to the Woodbine Racetrack, a sprawling site whose future has now become tied to Toronto's broader push to build more homes on underused land.
The path toward redevelopment has unfolded in stages. It began with transit, when in 2019 Metrolinx and the Woodbine Entertainment Group partnered to build a brand-new GO station beside the racetrack, a station that, once open, is set to replace the existing Etobicoke North GO station and sits on the southeast quadrant of the Woodbine lands.
Policy changes then opened the door further. In 2023, the city changed the status of part of the land from a place reserved for economic activity to land that could also hold housing. That shift was followed by the Ontario-Toronto New Deal Agreement, in which the city and the province agreed to work on new communities for Toronto, including advancing a mixed-use development beside the Woodbine GO station.
For residents nearby, the promise of transformation comes with unease. Rexdale was described as a part of the city where a lot of families are still struggling to make ends meet, and some voiced concern about what a development on this scale could mean for the existing community, raising questions about affordability and who the new neighbourhood will ultimately be for.