Item - 2024.IE11.2

The Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council amend City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 610, Penalties, Administration of, increasing the penalty amounts generally as outlined in Attachments 3 and 4 to the report (February 12, 2024) from the General Manager, Transportation Services with an implementation date of August 1, 2024.

2. City Council amend Section 950-101B of City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 950, Traffic and Parking, by:

a. deleting the phrase: "is equipped to receive a Level 2 SAE J1772 Conductive Charge Coupler (i.e., Level 2 charging capability)" such that the revised definition would read:

"ELECTRIC VEHICLE - A vehicle that has an electric motor that can be powered by drawing current from rechargeable storage batteries or other portable electrical energy storage devices, includes a plug-in hybrid vehicle, and for the purposes of recharging its batteries."; and,

b.  inserting in alphabetical order a new definition for ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING SPACE as follows:

"ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING SPACE - that portion of which is identified for parking use by an Electric Vehicle."

3.  City Council amend Section 950-601 of City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 950, Traffic and Parking, to include a new Subsection S as follows:

"S. Where authorized signs to that effect are displayed identifying an Electric Vehicle Parking Space, no person shall park a vehicle in an Electric Vehicle Parking Space in a car-park set out in Schedule XXXIV to § 950-1333 unless the vehicle is an Electric Vehicle and the Electric Vehicle is actively connected to the electric vehicle charging station."

4.  City Council amend Sections 950-1200B and 950-1201A by deleting the phrase "or 950-601P" and inserting the phrase ", 950-601P or 950-601S".

5. City Council amend Section 915-1 of City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 915, Parking on Private or Municipal Property, by inserting in alphabetical order a definition of ELECTRIC VEHICLE and a definition of ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING SPACE as follows:

"ELECTRIC VEHICLE - A vehicle that has an electric motor that can be powered by drawing current from rechargeable storage batteries or other portable electrical energy storage devices, includes a plug-in hybrid vehicle, and for the purposes of recharging its batteries.

ELECTRIC VEHICLE PARKING SPACE - that portion of which is identified for parking use by an Electric Vehicle."

6. City Council amend Section 915-2 of City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 915, Parking on Private or Municipal Property, to include a new Subsection D and E, as follows:

"D. Where the property owner or occupant has posted signs identifying an electric vehicle parking space, no person shall park or leave a motor vehicle in an electric vehicle parking space on municipal property unless the motor vehicle is an Electric Vehicle and the Electric Vehicle is actively connected to the electric vehicle charging station.    

E. Where the property owner or occupant has posted signs identifying an electric vehicle parking space, no person shall park or leave a motor vehicle in a parking space on private property unless the motor vehicle is an Electric Vehicle and the Electric Vehicle is actively connected to the electric vehicle charging station."      

7.   City Council amend Sections 915-10B and 915-10C by deleting the phrase "or § 915-2B" where it appears and inserting the phrase ", § 915-2B, § 915-2D or § 915-2E".

8.  City Council amend the definition of Electric Vehicle in Section 910-1A of City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 910, Parking Machines, Parking Meters and Mobile Only Zones, by deleting the phrase: "is equipped to receive a Level 2 SAE J1772 Conductive Charge Coupler (i.e., Level 2 charging capability)" such that the revised definition would read:

"ELECTRIC VEHICLE - A vehicle that has an electric motor that can be powered by drawing current from rechargeable storage batteries or other portable electrical energy storage devices, includes a plug-in hybrid vehicle, and for the purposes of recharging its batteries."

9. City Council amend City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 610, Penalties, Administration of, generally as set out in Attachment 5 to the report (February 12, 2024) from the General Manager, Transportation Services.

10. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to introduce the necessary bills to give effect to City Council's decision and City Council authorize the City Solicitor to make any necessary clarifications, refinements, minor modifications, technical amendments, or by-law amendments as may be identified by the City Solicitor or General Manager, Transportation Services, in order to give effect to Recommendations 1 to 9, inclusive.

This report responds to a request from the Infrastructure and Environment Committee to undertake a comprehensive review of the various on-street parking administrative penalty amounts and to report back on revised administrative penalty amounts.

Transportation Services has been working with a number of City agencies to review the Parking Violation Notices (PVN) issued by the City of Toronto and has conducted a jurisdictional scan of several Canadian municipalities to compare similar offences and their penalty amounts to those of the City of Toronto. As a result of this review, this report recommends Council approval to increase penalty amounts for 125 offences associated with 'parking', 'stopping' and 'standing'. The recommended increase in penalty amounts will ensure better alignment with penalty amounts in other jurisdictions, encourage compliance, ensure certain offences are set at levels commensurate with the seriousness of the offence, and ensure that offences within the same categories are set at the same penalty amount for consistency.

City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 610, Penalties, Administration of, will need to be amended to reflect the new penalty amounts.

This report also recommends establishing parking offences for electric vehicle charging parking stalls in off-street parking facilities as well as adding new or updating existing definition(s) related to Electric Vehicles ("EVs").

Currently, operators of off-street parking facilities, including the Toronto Parking Authority (TPA), have limited enforcement capabilities concerning EV parking due to a lack of offence provisions in the City of Toronto Municipal Code concerning parking in portions of parking facilities set aside for the charging of EVs. This absence of regulatory provisions restricts parking facility operators from ticketing non-EV’s parking in designated EV charging spaces, or ticketing EVs parked in designated EV charging spaces that are not actively charging.

The General Manager, Transportation Services, has consulted with the TPA as well as with operators and customers of off-street parking facilities which are regulated by Chapter 915.

As a result of the consultation by the General Manager, Transportation Services, and general observations concerning the needs relating to a positive customer experience for EV charging customers, this report is recommending amendments to the City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 950, Traffic and Parking, and City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 915, Parking on Private or Municipal Property, to introduce new offence provisions related to electric vehicle charging parking. This would allow the enforcement of the usage of off-street EV charging spaces and promote compliance. City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 610, Penalties, Administration of, will also need to be amended to reflect the new offence provisions and associated penalty amounts for the offence provisions.