Following years of planning and debate, there will finally be a face lift for Union Station.

Members of council voted overwhelmingly on the first day of council meetings to approve the five year revitalization of the storied transportation hub, scheduled to begin in 2010. The project will restore the building’s crumbling Great Hall, as well as add a retail concourse level underneath the station.

In keeping with recent energy saving measures, a green roof - the largest in the country- will cover a new glass atrium cooled by lake water. A proposed tunnel located in the station’s northwest quadrant promises to divert pedestrian traffic to the existing PATH system of underground walkways.

According to mayor Miller, the long-awaited project — to be funded by all levels of government — marks an unprecedented level of cooperation.

“Today, the city of Toronto says to its government partners that we’re prepared to do our part,” he said.

Ottawa, through its Infrastructure Canada program, will kick in nearly $140 million, while GO Transit will donate $172 million to the revitalization. The plan also includes funding for the construction of office space for the provincial transit body. The city is expected to raise a large portion of its $303.5 million obligation from the planned retail concourse that will be leased to an unnamed private partner.

The Union Station renovation project was one of several items fast-tracked to the top of this month’s council agenda. Debate on the project at council’s executive committee meeting had been postponed along with other city business because of the five-week long civic workers strike.

Approval of the project has been a personal mission of the mayor since the release of the station master plan in 2004.

“This has been a long and complicated process,” he said. “Our intention was always to make Union Station a destination where people want to go.”

Despite the near unanimous result, three conservative members opted not to support the renovation project. Rob Ford of Etobicoke North, a longtime nemesis of the mayor, was yet again council’s lone dissenter, while Denzil Minnan-Wong and Karen Stintz, abstained altogether. Minnan-Wong and Stintz, who are both members of the opposition Responsible Government shadow cabinet, weren’t even in council chambers when the vote took place.

Even with council’s approval, the project will not begin construction until early next year.

Council also approved an action plan to deal with the scarcity of affordable housing as well as several city grants to local community organizations.

Councilors are scheduled to reconvene tomorrow morning for the second day of meetings.