An unorthodox battle is heading to city council Wednesday, pitting a housing developer who wants to build more than 2,000 homes against miracle-citing devotees of the Virgin Mary desperate to restore a prayer site on the same property.
At the centre of the fight is a scenic 16.8-acre riverside property at 3100 Weston Rd. It includes a community centre, two sports fields and a historic mansion long used as a monastery that included a makeshift shrine to the mother of Jesus Christ, where hundreds of believers would gather to pray and be healed, physically and spiritually.