City councillors have approved a report from the transportation committee calling for the construction of bus transit lanes down the median of Baseline Road.
The plan is aimed at speeding bus service down the major artery, as an alternative to other cross-town transit routes.
It will first run from Heron Road to Woodroffe Avenue - if the second stage is approved, it would continue on to Bayshore.
The first phase is estimated to cost $168-million.
The project would require the expropriation of 15 properties in their entirety, and the partial expropriation of more than 200 others.
Council also received three petitions signed by 478 people calling on the city to change the plan so the buses-only route would run down outside lanes of Baseline, as has been done in other parts of the city.