The City of Toronto is going ahead with an enthusiastic plan that would see more than one million homes built around transit stations.City leaders are rolling out a new plan to dramatically increase density, and those who already live near transit stations could get a lot of new neighbours. At a technical briefing at City Hall on Thursday, Mayor Olivia Chow joined Toronto’s newly installed chief planner to explain what the changes to density and maximum heights near 120 transit stations will mean.“You are about to get more neighbours. It will revitalize the area,” said Chow. “Right around those major corners where the subway station is, there will be higher buildings and it will step down into shorter ones and then tier down to even lower ones.”Toronto’s new housing plan was approved by the province in August, with the hope that it could unlock 1.5 million homes over the next 25 years.“We have an active pipeline of buildings and many of those historically had to go through these site-specific official plan amendments and rezoning applications, so on a go-forward basis, the goal is that would no longer be necessary,” said chief planner Jason Thorne.In some parts of the city, the changes could be more dramatic, and that could mean pushback from residents.“Change is coming, we have to tackle the housing crisis head-on,” said Chow. “We absolutely have to build more homes that people can afford, faster.”First though, it has to get through City Council.“I’m not that happy because over and over again we’ve said if we’re going to put extra density, put more affordable, have a mix – 30 per cent, where everyday people can move in,” said Coun. Paula Fletcher. “In this day and age, with affordable housing being the number one issue, it’s just shocking that that is not a prime piece of any changes.”For those working with developers, there is skepticism that Toronto’s planning department will change.“It remains to be seen,” said Sean Galbraith, a planning consultant with Galbraith & Associates. “They will have to accept things they would not have accepted in the past. Time will tell.”Momin Qureshi of 680NewsRadio contributed to this report