Regulating Unfinished Development Sites

Unfinished construction sites are becoming an increasingly familiar sight in neighbourhoods across Toronto. For example, many of you will be familiar with the townhouse developments in various stages of completion along Bayview Avenue, from the 401 to Lawrence Avenue East. All too frequently, developers demolish the existing structures and then leave the site dormant for years before construction finally begins, allowing the property to fall into a state of disrepair in the interim.

Many of you are also familiar with the story of "Lake Leaside" at 70 Wicksteed Avenue – a commercial development site that went dormant over 5 years ago. While the applicant has since reinitiated the Planning Review process, it took significant pressure from my office coupled with widespread community outrage for that to happen.

At City Council, I have called for strong, enforceable policies to hold developers accountable to their construction timelines and require site remediation when work is not proceeding. After a lengthy review of the issue, Toronto Building staff found that in order to strengthen the City's ability to regulate dormant construction sites, significant changes to the Province's Ontario Building Code (OBC) would be required. As a result, the Chief Building Official has engaged the Ontario Government on our requested changes to the OBC.

Through a colleague, I moved several motions at Planning and Housing Committee requesting an urgent staff report on the outcome of the City's discussions with the Provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. My motions also directed staff to ensure that any strategy to regulate dormant construction sites is aligned with Toronto's Property Standards By-law, which is currently under review by Municipal Licensing & Standards.