VAUGHAN, ONT. — The (RESCON) has announced it is launching legal action against the City of Toronto over the escalation of Toronto Green Standard (TGS) performance measures.
In a media release issued Dec. 2, RESCON stated it had filed a legal application in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice where it is seeking a mandatory order that would enforce the Building Code Act and prohibit the city from imposing building regulations on planning applications because “they are beyond the legal authority of the city.”
While RESCON agrees the city has authority under the Planning Act over land-use planning matters and can impose site-specific controls over the development of land within city boundaries, the council is arguing the manner of construction and standards are not subject to site plan control because those matters are already governed by the Ontario Building Code (OBC).
“The city is overstepping the scope of its planning authority by mandating technical building measures already covered in the OBC which have been progressively updated and grounded in research, building science, thorough consultation as well as cost-benefit analysis,” explains RESCON president Richard Lyall in a statement.
“Individual municipalities do not have the authority to develop their own building regulations. The province moved away from this practice in 1975 when the OBC was established to unify the design and construction of buildings province wide.”
Municipalities are not technical standards development bodies and not well-equipped to deal with such regulations, the release reads, which is why building codes are developed at the federal and provincial level.
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