extended past the boundaries of Toronto. It was recognized within the planning department that the farmland surrounding the city would soon be developed. In 1943, the City of Toronto Planning Board developed a plan for the area within a nine-mile radius of Yonge Street and Queen Street. It included a network of superhighways, one of which followed a similar routing to the future Spadina Expressway. In November 1947, the City of Toronto Civic Work Committee approved a plan submitted by the Toronto City Planning Board for two new arterial roads: one running east–west along the lakeshore named the Waterfront Highway and another running north–south to the west of downtown. The north–south route entailed construction of a new road from Front Street to St. Clair Avenue along the route of the existing Spadina Avenue and Spadina Road. The jog at Bloor Street connecting the two existing roads would be straightened and a new cut of the Davenport Road escarpment would be made, adjacent to Casa Loma. The proposal was added to the January1, 1948, municipal election, where it was narrowly approved by voters 34,261 to 32,078. While the proposal was adopted, the narrow approval led councillors to hold off on approval of construction. A proposal for a highway from the northwest to downtown was developed in 1949 by the Toronto and Suburban Planning Board, part of a plan for numerous expressways in the Toronto area, including the "Lakeshore Expressway" (the eventual Gardiner Expressway) and Don Valley Parkway. It was to be named "North West Drive", or the "Spadina Road Extension". The route was laid out by two members of the board, future Metro chairman Fred Gardiner and James P. Maher, chairman of the Toronto Planning Board. The proposal died when York Township rejected the idea. Shortly after Metropolitan Toronto (Metro) was formed in 1953, it proposed building "superhighways" into and out of downtown, as well as encircling the downtown with an "expressway ring". The routes of the Lakeshore and Don Valley expressways were less controversial and allowed to proceed, while others were put off for further study, as they would cut through developed areas and were considered lower priority. The Spadina Expressway was first conceptualized in December 1953 and became part of the Metro official transportation plan in 1959. The original plan intended to connect a "Highway403 bypass" in the vicinity of today's Highway407 in the city of Vaughan south through