Item - 2021.IE21.3

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council adopt the "Policy for Accepting Potentially Contaminated Lands to be Conveyed to the City as a Condition of Development Application Approval, May 2021" as described in Attachment 1 to the report (April 14, 2021) from the Chief Engineer and Executive Director, Engineering and Construction Services

The purpose of this report is to seek Council approval to amend the City Policy entitled "Policy for Accepting Potentially Contaminated Lands to be Conveyed to the City under the Planning Act" (the Policy).

The proposed amendments are intended to clarify the application of the Policy to land conveyances related to Development Applications, clarify the language of the Policy, further align City processes with existing Provincial regulatory requirements, and address concerns raised during consultation with internal and external stakeholders. The proposed amendments do not expose the City to additional environmental risk.

The amendments are captured in the updated new Policy titled "Policy for Accepting Potentially Contaminated Lands to be Conveyed to the City as a Condition of a Development Application Approval", and is summarized as follows:

- Renaming of the Policy to better reflect conveyance of land to the City in a land development context that may be authorized through legislation other than the Planning Act, such as through the City of Toronto Act, 2006, and the Condominium Act,1998.

- Inclusion of the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Stratified Site Condition Standards (excluded from the 2015 Policy), to permit conveyance of lands where the quality of the surface soil (1.5 metre depth) standards are set to protect future intended uses, while less stringent standards are applied to the subsurface soil. 

- Clearer description of the Applicant's responsibilities.

- New language that clearly outlines the Peer Review Process.

- Detailed description of situations that are exempted from the Peer Review Process.
 

Adoption of the amended Policy will simplify and expedite the development approval process for conveyance of potentially contaminated lands.

The report also responds to the November 2019, direction from Council to report back on potential amendments to the existing Policy and other measures as appropriate, in order to facilitate staff recommended dedication of small sized parks that will be designed as hard surface public spaces, built and managed by Parks, Forestry and Recreation.

This report has been prepared in consultation with Transportation Services, Toronto Water, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, City Planning and Legal Services.