August 31, 1998

Ms. Novina Wong

Clerk

City of Toronto

Station 1071, 7th Floor

Metro Hall

55 John Street

Toronto, Ontario

M5V 3C6

Dear Ms. Wong:

City Council on July 29, 30 and 31, 1998, struck out and referred the following Clause to the Toronto Transit Commission for consideration at its first meeting in September; and the Chief General Manager, Toronto Transit Commission, the Director of Planning, North York District, and the Chief Building Official, North York District, were requested to submit a joint report to such Commission meeting on all outstanding matters required to obtain the necessary building permits; and these City officials were requested to be in attendance at the aforementioned Commission meeting.

"The North York Community Council recommends that the Toronto Transit Commission be requested to:

(1)stop construction on the Sheppard Subway until such time as the necessary approvals and permits have been received from the appropriate City of Toronto departments and that the Executive Director of Building Services be instructed to issue stop work orders;

(2)obtain site plan approval prior to tendering contracts and that if the Toronto Transit Commission does not have the appropriate approvals in place stop work orders be issued by City staff;

(3)direct its staff to work with the local Councillors on the site plan applications in the project areas and on the emergency exits immediately".

North York and TTC staff have worked cooperatively to resolve Site Plan and Building Permit issues and to-date, at a staff level, the process has worked well. Significant progress has been made in the past month (Don Mills final site plan approval, full Don Mills Building Permit, Twin Tunnels EEBs final site plan approval) and several other approvals (Leslie Building Permit and final site plan approval, Yonge Site Plan, Bessarion Site Plan) are close to being completed.

All TTC site plan applications, and Building Permits with the exception of Bessarion Station, for the project are in the process of being reviewed by North York Building and Planning staff. Major issues that would affect the project budget or schedule are not anticipated unless new issues are raised during the review process. As staff have worked closely prior to the submission of permits, this is not anticipated to be a problem.

It should be emphasized that no significant building permit issues have been raised during the review of the TTC's permit applications for either Leslie or Don Mills Station as project staff have met extensively in the past 18 months on Building Code issues as the design of the stations progressed. Major Building Code interpretations have been resolved with North York Building officials prior to the TTC's Building Permit applications being submitted. Consequently, the changes required to the stations from the review of the TTC's Building Permit applications have been extremely minor in nature and have had no impact on the cost of the project.

Similarly, North York Planning staff have been involved in reviewing the 30, 60, 90 and 100% design submissions of the stations are submitted for informal review prior to the Site Plan Application being submitted. As well, as the site plan approval process deals only with the above grade portions of the project, the risk of site plan conditions significantly affecting the cost of the project is very low.

The outstanding issues that must be resolved prior to the issuance of the remaining permits and approvals are as follows:

Permit RequiredOutstanding Issues

Yonge Station

(a)Site Plan Approval -Re-design of architecture of Emergency Exit Building (currently underway).

(b)Building Permit -Building Department and Fire Department review. No problem anticipated in meeting target date of September 30, 1998.

Bayview Station

(a)Site Plan Approval -Review by various internal and external agencies.

(b)Building Permit -Building Department and Fire Department review. No problem anticipated in meeting target date of December 2, 1998.

Bessarion Station

(a)Site Plan Approval-Draft site plan agreement being reviewed by TTC. Outstanding site plan issues are being addressed.

(b)Building Permit-On hold. Building Permits for Yonge and Leslie are considered higher priority.

Leslie Station

(a)Site Plan Approval-Approved. Conditions of approval are being addressed.

(b)Building Permit-OBC review complet. Fire Department review remaine.

Don Mills Station

(a)Site Plan Approval-None.

(b)Building-None. Full permits received.

Twin Tunnels (EEBs)

(a)Site Plan Approval-NA

(b)Building Permit-NA

The only other issue of immediate urgency is the need for a tree cutting permit for road works in the Yonge Station area. This work has been the subject of letters from TTC to Councillor Filion (see attached). This permit is required urgently and since the trees must be removed in any case to facilitate a future development, there appears to be no obstacle to the issuance of the necessary permit.

It is not practical to submit site plan applications prior to tendering as the very details that are necessary for an application are not finalized until the contract is ready to go to tender. Delaying the station tenders until site plan approval is obtained would mean delaying a $50 to $100 million station contract in order to resolve some architectural and landscaping design issues. Generally, major technical design issues (which would impact the site plan and building permits) are addressed in North York staff's review of the 30, 60 90 and 100% design submissions. Delay would likely cost the project millions of dollars in additional costs for project overheads and inflation.

In conclusion, the permit and approval process has worked well from a staff perspective, considerable progress has been made and barring any new issues being raised, the outstanding issues can be resolved so that the necessary permits will be issued on a timely basis.

Attached are the following:

1)Status of Permits and Approvals Report dated September 2, 1998 to the Toronto Transit Commission. This report is updated for every Commission Meeting.

2)Letter from Chief General Manager to Mayor Lastman dated March 30, 1998 with attachment.

3)Memo dated July 28, 1998 from Chief General Manager to the Toronto Transit Commission.

Yours very truly,

David L. GunnVirgina West

Chief General ManagerCommissioner

Urban Planning and Development Services

50-20-11

E1217/242157

Attachment

Copy:Bryan Tuckey, Director of Community Planning - North York

Yaman Uzumeri, Chief Building Official

T. Tipping, Deputy Chief Building Official, North District

Chair Howard Moscoe

Vice-Chair Rob Davis

Commissioner Brian Ashton

Commissioner Blake Kinahan

Commissioner Chris Korwin-Kuczynski

Commissioner Joe Mihevc

Commissioner David Miller