Click on one of the links below to read more about the Yard Consolidation Studies.
History of Yard Consolidation Studies
Municipal yards are critical to the delivery of many public services. Services like road repairs, snow removal, water and sewer main installation and repairs, solid waste collection, and park maintenance all require yards to carry out their operations.
Yards also provide support for many functions, including repairing City vehicles and storing supplies. At the same time, yards are significant and strategic real estate assets, which must be managed in the public interest.
At amalgamation, the City of Toronto inherited all of the yards each former city used to deliver services. During amalgamation, yards were allocated to the various departments in the new City that required them to deliver their services. Several yards were deemed surplus and closed, and their operations were moved to vacant areas of other yards.
Opportunities for further yard consolidation have been examined, but have been more difficult to implement because of the more constrained conditions at the remaining facilities, requiring a more detailed, in-depth study of properties and facilities.
To address the issues the City's yards are facing, City Council directed the Facilities & Real Estate Division to conduct Yard Consolidation Studies, starting with the Etobicoke York District.
The studies examine the possibility of consolidating yards and explore opportunities to redevelop surplus yard properties, while maintaining or improving service delivery related to current yard operations.
To achieve these objectives, a plan will be created for the yard system that will be implemented through the City's capital budget.
To date the Etobicoke York District segment of the Yard Consolidation Studies has been completed with the final report available for review. The report provides a detailed background of the study with four potential yard improvement options and recommendations.
An implementation strategy is currently being devised for the Etobicoke York District Yard Study by AECOM, a consulting firm retained by the City, and will be available online soon for review.
Reason for the Studies
The reason for conducting Yard Consolidation Studies stems from a number of observations:
