THE RECENT PURCHASE of a North York property set for demolition to make way for a new road is “outrageous” according to one city councillor.

The house at 54 Horsham Ave., located near Yonge Street and Finch Avenue, was recently bought by the city for $739,075 to make way for a section of the North York city centre service road. The roughly 20- year-old planned traffic route was adopted to facilitate increased traffic created by redevelopment of the North York city centre. When completed, the ring road — currently being built in sections — will run around Yonge Street between Finch Avenue and Sheppard Avenue.

“For what I see bungalows go for or houses like that in the area, for us to pay that amount of money for it I think is outrageous,” said Coun. Rob Ford. Ford is quick to dismiss the idea that the road is essential to handle current traffic on Yonge Street.

“I don’t buy that,” he said. “You can come to Etobicoke, and I can show you roads that are just as busy. What are we going to do? Start buying houses up? I don’t think the city’s in that business of purchasing houses for this amount of money, especially now in tough times. I just don’t see how an average person can justify this expenditure.”

Coun. John Filion said this type of purchase — and the price tag that he said, “seems about right” — is routine.

“There are dozens of properties that have been needed for the service road,” said Filion. “In some cases the city buys them, in some cases a developer buys them and turns them over. The property’s in the path of the service road,” he added. “If they hadn’t sold it, we would have expropriated it.”

Pascoal D’Souza, the city’s manager of traffic planning and rights of way management, said that construction of the road — which he described as “important” — has not kept pace with other development in the area.

“It is behind schedule,” he said. “We hoped that the service road had been built a lot earlier, but because we were unable to get all the lands needed for construction, that’s why we were slowed down.”

D’Souza said that if the necessary properties between Kempford Avenue and Ellerslie Avenue are acquired, construction on the road west of Yonge Street should begin next year. The road on the east side of Yonge Street is scheduled for completion this fall. “With the downturn in [the] economy, things have slowed down somewhat,” he said.