Item - 2018.PG29.1

The Planning and Growth Management Committee recommends that:  

1. City Council request the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building, the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, the General Manager, Transportation Services, the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation and the General Manager, Toronto Water to evaluate the effectiveness of a joint targeted inspection and enforcement program related to residential infill construction activity conducted by Toronto Building, Municipal Licensing and Standards, Transportation Services, Parks, Forestry and Recreation and Toronto Water and report to the Planning and Growth Management Committee in the first quarter 2019.

2. City Council direct the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building, in the review and update to Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 363, to identify and recommend opportunities for efficiencies in the inspection and enforcement of construction fencing.

3. City Council adopt the draft by-law in Appendix 2, to the report (April 23, 2018) from the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building, to add an additional Chapter to the City of Toronto Municipal Code, implementing regulations concerning the posting of public notice on residential infill construction and demolition sites.

4. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to make the necessary applications to the Regional Senior Justice to seek approval for short-form wording and set fines with respect to the current provisions of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 363 related to construction fencing, and the additional Municipal Code chapter as indicated in Recommendation 3 above.

5. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to prepare the necessary Bills for introduction in Council to implement the above noted amendments to the City of Toronto Municipal Code, subject to such stylistic and technical changes to the draft by-law as may be required.

6. City Council request the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation to report quarterly to the Parks and Environment Committee on the number of tickets issued and charges laid against builders for failure to protect city trees.

7. City Council request the Ontario Real Estate Association and the Law Society of Ontario to update their real estate transactions practices so that, prior to completing a real estate transaction, their members search and advise their clients whether there are open and active building permits associated with the property, regardless of whether title insurance is being used.

8. City Council request the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building, as part of the report requested in Recommendation 1 above, to identify the number of tickets issued on residential infill construction sites by Toronto Building Inspectors and the total value of fines and, if necessary, recommend any changes to the residential infill construction strategy in order to support its continued implementation.

9. City Council Direct the General Manager, Transportation Services in consultation with the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building to review ways to improve the parking of vehicles during construction and to increase awareness of the process to obtain temporary parking permits for contractor vehicles adjacent to active construction sites.

The Planning and Growth Management Committee:

1.  Requested the General Manager, Parks Forestry and Recreation to report directly to Council on changes to Chapter 813 of the Toronto Municipal Code to require tree protection fencing to be structurally secure so that it cannot be easily moved.

2.  Requested the General Manager, Transportation Services and the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building to report directly to Council on a plan to remove illegally placed signage on construction hoarding and to collect the appropriate fees where the payment of such fees would be required.

3. Requested the Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building, as part of the upcoming review of the Sign By-law (Chapter of the Toronto Municipal Code), to review the requirements around signs on construction sites, including a review of the number, size and placement of signs on construction sites and report back in the second quarter of 2019.

The Chief Building Official and Executive Director, Toronto Building gave a presentation on Strategy for Minimizing the Negative Impacts of Residential Infill Construction Activity – Update.

The purpose of this report is to respond to City Council's direction that the Chief Building Official, in consultation with relevant divisions, report to the Planning and Growth Management Committee on the status of actions undertaken to implement the Residential Infill Strategy and identify any further actions necessary to support its continued development.  

In 2016, Toronto City Council adopted the recommendations from the Chief Building Official (Acting) which initiated the implementation and inter-divisional coordination of the strategy to address nuisance issues associated with residential infill construction.  Through inter-divisional cooperation, the implementation of the strategic actions are aimed at preventing problems from occurring on residential infill construction sites as well as creating an effective and streamlined enforcement system to respond to issues when they do occur.  The strategy reflects this shift to being more proactive on residential infill construction-related nuisance issues, rather than being largely reactive.

This report contains an initial evaluation of the strategic actions completed to date and recommendations aimed at improving the effectiveness of the strategy going forward.  These additional recommendations include an annual targeted inspection and enforcement program aimed at residential infill sites throughout the city and proposed additional ticketing and enforcement powers for contraventions of the City's construction site fence requirements.

All action items are underway or completed.  However, there are two remaining items that require City Council action to implement: the infill construction site public notice by-law and the dust control by-law. This report contains recommendations which would establish a by-law requiring a public notice to be posted on all residential infill construction and demolition sites.  Municipal Licensing and Standards is considering creating regulations respecting construction dust and will report back to the Licensing and Standards Committee in July 2018 with recommendations, as the implications of construction dust regulations may extend beyond residential infill construction.

 The Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards, General Manager, Toronto Water; General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, General Manager, Transportation Services, Fire Chief and General Manager, Toronto Fire Services, Executive Director, Engineering and Construction Services, Director, 311 Toronto, Director, Energy & Environment Division, and the City Solicitor were consulted in the preparation of this report.