Toronto Council meets today!
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Toronto Council meets today! Mayor Olivia Chow has set rental housing incentives as her top key matter, so that will be debated first after the usual housekeeping and introductions.
The meeting is streaming live here. I'll post happenings.
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Also on the agenda: Doug Ford's bike lane ban, a hotel tax hike for funding FIFA, and a renovictions bylaw. I had a full preview of the agenda in Friday's free edition of City Hall Watcher. https://toronto.cityhallwatcher.com/p/has-don-valley-west-was-won-mayor
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Council kicks off with congratulations to the newest member of the Council Club: Don Valley West's Rachel Chernos Lin. Mayor Olivia Chow calls her a "unifier" and welcomes her "in a spirit of new beginnings."
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And now: another presentation. Integrity Commissioner Jonathan Batty's term is up, so he's moving on. The mayor pays tribute to his work helping elected officials stick to the rules. Will anyone make a "Sometimes you drove us Batty" joke? There's still time.
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The jokes are coming. "Occasionally, when writing about one of my reports to council, someone would slip in an R after the B in my last name, but I always ascribed that to being a typo rather than an editorial comment," says Batty.
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Bratty Summer comes to an end, as Batty thanks everybody and gets a standing ovation as permitted under Code of Conduct section 45-B(2).
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The honours continue. The mayor highlights recent awards won by a pair of longtime senior staffers: Transportation GM Barbara Gray and Executive Director of Social Development Denise Andrea Campbell.
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Councillor Pasternak, chair of North York Community Council, also welcomes Rachel Chernos Lin. "The bad news is we've deferred many of the items for Ward 15, so you're going to have some late nights reading lots of reports—but I'm sure some of them will be quite entertaining."
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Councillor Michael Thompson, attending this meeting virtually, has a petition from residents opposed to putting a stop at Mooregate Avenue & Tara Avenue for the forthcoming Scarborough busway. He says more details will be added to the agenda later. Hmm.
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Councillor Stephen Holyday says he wants to vote against authorizing the closure of the Gardiner/DVP in 2025 for the Triathlon Festival. But Councillor Pasternak wants to debate it ("The Gardiner — my favourite subject!"), so they'll come back to the matter later.
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Councillor Stephen Holyday wants a recorded vote on whether to authorize the installation of traffic lights at Kingston Road and Columbine Avenue in Beaches - East York. The traffic lights are APPROVED 23-1. Okay then. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.TE17.53
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Council votes 19-0 to adopt Ookwemin Minising as the official name for the island formerly known as Villiers in the Port Lands. They also approve naming the big park on the island Biidaasige Park.
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An item about updating the zoning for low-rise residential lands CARRIES 23-1. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.PH16.2
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After members get a chance to "hold" items they want to debate later, any unheld items are adopted en masse. The batch approval process CARRIES 23-0.
Up now: A proposed new program will offer a range of incentives to encourage developers to build rentals https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2024.EX18.2
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The proposed rental incentive program is really a two-step thing. The city reckons it can cover the cost of incentives to get 7,000 homes built. An additional 13,000 homes could be built with federal/provincial support.
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The major incentives are deferring development charges forever (as long as the building remains a rental) and a 15% property tax reduction for 35 years. There will also be additional money to support target of 20% of new rentals as affordable housing.
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A new staff report provides a timeline. If this item is adopted, staff are planning to start accepting applications for the first phase (7K rental homes) on Nov 18, closing on Nov 29. Applications will be prioritized based on construction start date — the earlier the better.
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"Would it be fair to characterize this first phase as us proving to other governments that this can work ... but if we want to do it at scale, we're going to need the federal and provincial governments to come in and assist?" asks Councillor Perks.
Staff agree with that.
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Housing Secretariat Executive Director Abi Bond says city hall has already been hearing from developers with planned residential projects that have stalled and could be shifted to take advantage of this rental incentive program.
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Cheng asks the CFO about the $$$ the city will give up by waiving dev charges. It's $325 million that would normally go to things like parks and rec centres. CFO says he's analyzed it, and this is the "upset limit" of how much rev they can give up without impacting infra plans.
