City Hall hunts for cash in vast parking lots
The Week at Toronto City Hall for the week of February 26 to March 1, featuring increased parking fines and a potential parking levy — plus some non-parking debates too
Hey there! It’s been a relatively quiet week at City Hall following last week’s budget bonanza. The biggest news? Mayor Olivia Chow got a novelty cheque from Premier Doug Ford. Presumably, an actual cheque, too. I hope. Meanwhile, a couple of reports dropped on ways the City could raise a big bunch of cash by increasing the cost of parking. Those reports will be among the many items up for consideration next week as the Infrastructure & Environment Committee, the Planning & Housing Committee, and Chow’s Executive Committee get together. Let’s look forward. — Matt Elliott
Monday, February 26
🌳 Etobicoke York Community Council meets at Etobicoke Civic Centre at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch live: Etobicoke Civic Centre Council Chamber, YouTube)GROWING JANE & FINCH: The west side’s Community Council will consider a report recommending urban design guidelines and a new zoning plan for the Jane-Finch neighbourhood. About 50,000 people live in the area today. By 2051, the plan suggests there could be 80,000, as the Finch West LRT and planned transit upgrades on Jane Street improve mobility and access.
AND ALSO:
Two trees are on the chopping block: a black walnut tree and a littleleaf linden tree. In both cases, the owner is seeking a permit to remove the tree over the objection of City staff. In the first case, the owner claims a resident suffers from a “severe walnut allergy.” Toronto Public Health says “There is no evidence to support the removal of a nut-bearing tree to mitigate risk from an allergic response.”
📚 The Toronto Public Library Board meets at the Reference Library at 6 p.m. (👀 Watch Live: Reference Library Board Room, WebEx)CRASH ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY: A report on last fall’s ransomware attack on Toronto Public Library (TPL) servers doesn’t reveal a lot of specifics on what happened.
“The forensic analysis has led TPL to conclude that the attackers breached a vulnerability in an internet-facing server, exfiltrating and encrypting data from a file server,” is the extent of the explanation for the attack on October 28 that knocked several library services offline. Recovery has been slow, but nearly everything is back now.
The report attempts to put a somewhat positive spin on the whole affair, saying that as a result of the attack the library is in a better place today with its cybersecurity than it would have been otherwise:
In fact, the post-incident work to rebuild TPL’s technical environment has accelerated TPL’s Digital Strategy and advanced security measures planned in TPL’s digital strategy roadmap. In other words, as part of the rebuilding and restoration work, TPL has not simply replicated the former environment but rather used this attack as an opportunity to accelerate plans. Subsequently, TPL’s IT security program maturity level has increased when assessed within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework (CSF).
AND ALSO:
Former councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby has written to the TPL Board asking that they keep it simple with a Council decision to rename the Jane-Dundas branch and just rename it the Jane Street Library.
Tuesday, February 27
🚧 The Infrastructure & Environment Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Committee Room 1, YouTube)THE HIGHER COST OF NOT-SO-FREE PARKING: Following a previous request to review on-street parking rates, City staff are recommending a bunch of hikes to the tickets you’ll get dinged with if you don’t pay the meter or block a bike lane.
In most cases, should the increases be approved by this committee and by Council in March, the City will have penalties higher than any other Canadian municipality used as a comparator by City staff.
Collectively, the changes could bring in an extra $62 million per year, but staff are projecting the actual amount to be between $40 million and $50 million per year, as parking habits change in response to higher penalties.
About 75% of tickets issued annually in recent years will be subject to hikes.
One thing to note for cyclists is that ticketing of cars for blocking bike lanes is down significantly from 2021, which looks to be a one-year blip with extra enforcement that was not sustained.
BOX BLOCKING BEAT: A report updating councillors on efforts to implement their previously approved Congestion Management Plan includes some interesting tidbits about challenges with drivers who “Block the Box” by pulling into an intersection when there is not enough room on the other side.
The fine for box blocking is a mere $90. That’s much lower than many of the parking ticket charges covered above. But to raise the penalty, the City needs approval from Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey.
Staff have decided it’s almost time to get that approval. Following the development of an enforcement strategy with Toronto Police that will be finalized this fall, they’re recommending that the City submit a request for the fine for blocking the box to go up to $450, with an extra $50 penalty for people who block the box in a designated community safety zone.
The report also says another report is coming this fall on a “road occupancy congestion management recovery fee” — or ROCMRF? The abbreviation needs some workshopping — that would charge developers for the full cost of closing streets for construction, taking into account the economic impacts of congestion.
Also coming this fall is a report on strategies to shift deliveries away from peak hours, so more trucks are doing their drop-offs and pick-ups at night when the streets are less busy. There are a bunch of details to work out here, especially when it comes to noise.
AND ALSO:
The City has put together a $48 million plan to deal with five aging bridges in Rouge Park. Two will be retained. Three will be replaced with “sympathetically designed bridges.” Because the bridges, which date back to the early 20th century, are “historically significant”, the old bridges will be kept around. The City will look for “adaptive reuse” possibilities and store them in the meantime.
The City asked Metrolinx to fork over $9 million to pay for fixing pavement on Eglinton Avenue torn up by trucks and other heavy machinery building the Crosstown LRT. Metrolinx countered with $5 million, calling it a “one-time arrangement, with the understanding that it would not set a precedent for future similar situations.” Staff are recommending Council take the deal.
Hey, batter batter. Councillor Stephen Holyday would like the City to come up with a way to keep batting cages as a feature in the revamped Centennial Park.
Previously, in City Hall Watcher
For paid subscribers of City Hall Watcher, this week’s issue has:
A look at the changes Council made to Mayor Olivia Chow’s budget, and how the votes came in.
The winners and losers from the budget debate
Next week:
The COUNCIL SCORECARD returns, with a look at how councillors have been voting since December. Let’s find out who’s on Team Chow.
Subscribe today for ad-free access to weekly subscriber-exclusive issues.
Wednesday, February 28
✅ The Compliance Audit Committee meets at City Hall at 9 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Committee Room 2, YouTube)OVERDOING IT: The Committee will consider eight cases where a donor in the 2022 municipal election gave beyond the prescribed donor limits. There are a few cases of small overcontributions to Councillor Amber Morley, seemingly caused by a prompt on her campaign website that allowed people to opt to cover the cost of credit card processing fees. When donors gave the maximum, it pushed them over. Whoops.
The biggest overcontribution case involves Sol Orwell, who donated $7,239.32 to several Council candidates in the 2022 election — significantly above the $5,000 total combined contribution limit for any single donor. In a letter, Orwell says, “This was wholeheartedly an accident on my part.”
🏘️ The Planning & Housing Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch live: Committee Room 1, YouTube)ROOMING RENOS: The City’s new regulations legalizing multi-tenant houses (still better known as rooming houses) will take effect on March 31. It’s a long time coming.
But one of the challenges with bringing the City’s stock of illegal rooming houses into compliance with the new set of rules designed to keep tenants safe is that the cost of bringing homes up to cost could run between $11,889 and $37,519 per room, according to a 2021 Maytree Foundation study.
To help with that, the City is proposing a grant and incentive program allowing landlords to apply for funds to cover some of those renovation costs. In return for receiving funds, landlords will need to operate the rooming house for at least 15 years and keep rental increases at or below the provincial guideline.
If approved by committee and Council in March, the program will cost $359,384 to support bringing 250 rooms in multi-tenant houses into compliance this year. Based on the results of this first phase, the program could be scaled up in future years.
AND ALSO:
Council’s 2022 decision to allow garden suites has so far resulted in… just six built garden suites, though another 57 are under construction, and 97 building permits have been issued. One big sticking point? The City’s “angular plane” requirements — of 128 variance applications attached to garden suite building permit applications, 28.8% have been about this requirement.
Councillor Paula Fletcher, Councillor Mike Colle, Councillor Frances Nunziata and Councillor Parthi Kandavel have teamed up to request a report on whether Toronto should copy Hamilton and implement a renoviction bylaw. Hamilton’s new rules require landlords to seek a “renovation license” before they embark on work that could trigger an eviction.
🏆 The Bid Award Panel meets via video conference at 2 p.m.CONTRACT AWARD OF THE WEEK: up to $5.2 million for tree planting.
Thursday, February 29
🗄️ The Executive Committee meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Committee Room 1, YouTube)A LEVY FOR PARKING YOUR CHEVY: During their debate on the Long-Term Financial Plan last summer, Council requested a report on a design and implementation plan for a tax levy that would apply to large commercial parking lots. That report is now here.
Staff are recommending the City endorse the “Overall Guiding Design Principles” for a commercial parking levy laid out in the document.
The basics:
The City will divide the city into two zones: downtown and central waterfront, and everything that’s not the downtown and central waterfront. In the former, the rate will be set at $6 annually per square metre of parking lot space, or about $180 per space. In the latter, the rate will be $3 annually per square metre or about $90 a space.
There will still be a bit of free parking. The first 300 square metres of parking lot, or about ten spaces on a property, will be exempt from the tax. (I wonder if this will lead to some properties trying to sever large parking lots into smaller mini-lots with ten spots each.)
For a large office building downtown with 42,600 square metres of parking, this will result in a tax bill of about $253,800. A large mall outside of downtown with 144,000 square metres of parking will pay $431,100.
It works out to about 50 cents a space per day downtown and 25 cents per space per day in the suburbs. I’d expect that cost to be factored into parking rates charged by businesses. And since the levy equally applies to paid and unpaid parking lots, I’d expect many businesses to switch to paid parking.
The biggest challenge: the City does not really know how many parking spots Toronto has. Broad estimates suggest there are about 1 million, but an inventory needs to be done, the report says, to make sure it’s accurate. “This may include geographic data, on-site inspections, data from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC), and owner-supplied information through self-reporting,” the report says. Looks like some lucky youths may be getting ready to embark on an exciting career as a Parking Lot Inspector.
There will be lots of exemptions. The province does not allow the City to tax provincially-owned parking lots, school board land, universities and colleges, hospitals, long-term care homes, churches, childcare centres, and a list of other property types, including “Battle Sites.” I’m not going to look up what that means and just assume it’s an American Gladiators thing.
As such, revenue is hard to pin down accurately. The City is now guessing between $100 million and $150 million annually. That’s a nice chunk of change, but it’s way down from some of the estimates bandied about in the Long-Term Financial Plan debate last summer, when it was suggested a levy could bring in up to $490 million per year.
If this report is advanced by the Executive Committee and approved by Council in March, staff will embark on a parking inventory, conduct further consultations and come back during the 2025 budget process to seek final approval for implementation next year.
This will, of course, prove controversial, both with the public and with some councillors. People tend to get passionate about parking. I’ll have more on the debate as it unfolds.
AND ALSO:
The committee had planned to have a report at this meeting on recommendations for implementing a new cap on the number of licenses available to drivers who use ride-hail apps like Uber and Lyft, but Mayor Olivia Chow has placed a motion to extend that timeline to this fall, ostensibly to allow for more analysis of driver wages. A report from RideFairTO recently pegged median wages for drivers at between $6.37 and $10.60 an hour. Uber says their drivers make more but bases their calculation on “engaged time,” which leaves out time between fares.
A review of the benefits of potential transit projects in Toronto gives top marks to bus rapid transit (BRT) routes along Wilson Avenue, Steeles Avenue, Dufferin Street, Lawrence Avenue and Kingston Road. Eastward and westward extensions of the Finch LRT also score well, as does a Jane Street LRT and an Ontario Line North extension. Notably, the City methodology gives low marks to a Sheppard Subway extension — both east and west — and the Waterfront West LRT. (Transit projects already under active planning, like the Ontario Line, the Waterfront East LRT and the Eglinton East LRT, weren’t included in this analysis.)
A report updating the Committee on plans for hosting FIFA World Cup 2026 is also set for the agenda, but was not available as of press time. I’m going to guess it’s not going to say the cost of hosting the World Cup has gotten any cheaper.
Friday, March 1
📺 The Film, Television and Digital Media Advisory Board meets at City Hall at 9:30 a.m. (👀 Watch Live: Committee Room 1, YouTube)PICTURE THIS: The advisory board for film productions will get some updates on various initiatives. CreateTO will provide an update on their plans for land in the port lands, which several film studios call home.
🪧 The Sign Variance Committee meets via video conference at 9:30 a.m.NO BMO: Staff are recommending against a BMO proposal to put a sign for their bank on the roof of the Eaton Centre, facing what’ll soon be known as Sankofa Square.
The Week After Next
A quiet week with City Hall making room for the councillors to attend a Federation of Canadian Municipalities board meeting in scenic Prince George, BC.
The Far-Flung Future
Council’s next meeting is set to kick off on March 20. Many of the items noted above will be considered for final approval at that meeting.
Feedback? Tip? Email Matt Elliott. For advertising inquiries, email Sean Hansel. Social media image via Toronto Archives.
An angular plane for a garden suite is insanity, that's just not what planning is supposed to be. Also, I saw a cop pull over a driver for blocking the box or blocking the entire cross walk on the east side of the intersection of Front & York, it was beautiful.