Item - 2016.EX16.21

The Executive Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council adopt the Community Asset Evaluation Framework, described in Appendix 1 of the report (June 13, 2016) from the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, and the findings of the June 2016 evaluation of school properties as community assets in Toronto, reported in Tables 1 and 2 of the report (June 13, 2016) from the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration.
 

2.  City Council approve the following directions for five school properties, should these properties be declared surplus and approved for disposition:
 

a.  City Council authorize the Chief Corporate Officer to negotiate and submit an offer to the Toronto Lands Corporation for the acquisition of the property municipally known as 925 Albion Road (Thistletown Multi-Service Centre), funded from the remaining balance of the Land Acquisition Reserve Fund allocated to the School Lands Acquisition Framework  and with additional contribution of funding from the Parkland Acquisition Reserve Funds, and on such other terms and condition as may be acceptable to the Chief Corporate Officer in consultation with the Executive Director, Social Development Finance and Administration, and the General Manager Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and in a form satisfactory to the City Solicitor;

b.  City Council encourage the Government of Ontario to pursue its expressed interests in acquisition of the property municipally known as 155 McNicoll Avenue (McNicoll Public School) and in acquisition of the property municipally known as 65 Hartsdale Drive (Silver Creek Public School) properties; both of which are sites for delivery of provincially-funded children's mental health and developmental services;

c.  City Council direct the City Manager to work with the Ontario Government, in addition to encouraging their acquisition of the property at 155 McNicoll Avenue, to develop options to maintain public access to the green space behind the school building and to ensure that the childcare services currently offered in the building are able to continue on the site.

d.  City Council strongly encourage the Toronto District School Board and the Community Hubs Secretariat of Ontario to explore with all interested parties the feasibility of ongoing public use of all or a portion of the property municipally known as 200 Poplar Road (Sir Robert Borden Business and Technical Institute); and

e.  City Council direct the General Manager, Children's Services to work with the Toronto District School Board to relocate child care spaces from 100 Allanhurst Drive (Buttonwood Hill Public School) and ensure no net loss of spaces in the local community.

3.  City Council direct the General Manager Parks, Forestry and Recreation, the General Manager, Children's Services, the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer, the Director, Real Estate Services, the Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District, the Director, Real Estate Law Group and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, to work with Ward 18 and Ward 19 Councillors, Toronto Lands Corporation and the current tenants of 375 Dovercourt Road, to develop a business case for the potential severance purchase and/or loan guarantee, in order to secure increased parkland and preserve 200 child care and after school programs and report to the Executive Committee.

4.  City Council adopt the following "Eight Principles for Redeveloping School Properties for Strong Communities" and request that the school boards operating in Toronto, the Toronto Lands Corporation, the Ministry of Education, the Community Hubs Secretariat of Ontario and other relevant entities adopt these principles to preserve and maximize community benefit during the disposition of school properties:

a.  new development or additions to existing school facilities and lands must be consistent with the City's Official Plan and Council approved design guidelines;

b.  school boards must ensure that they accommodate long-term growth projections prior to disposing of school sites and coordinate with the local municipality on population growth planning;

c.  schools boards should accommodate any child care program that would be impacted by the disposition of a school within other school facilities to ensure that there is no net loss of child care space in the local community;

d.  redevelopment of school sites should accommodate community facility space that will be displaced as a result of the disposition of a school facility to ensure no net loss of community space in the local area;

e.  redevelopment of school sites should maximize both the onsite provision of public parkland and the provision of privately owned but publicly accessible open space;

f.  the provision of a full range of housing, including affordable housing, should be secured as part of any site generally greater than 5 hectares. Affordable housing will be encouraged on all sites that can support multi-unit redevelopment;

g.  built heritage resources will be evaluated prior to the disposition of a school site; and

h.  where appropriate, provision of joint facilities, either with the school board, the City, a private developer, or any combination thereof, for community service purposes, is encouraged.

5.  City Council direct the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, in coordination with the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, the General Manager, Children's Services, the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation, and the Director, Real Estate Services, to work on a regular basis with school boards in Toronto to assess the City's interests in school properties as community assets and to report to Council as required.

6.   City Council recommend that the school boards operating in Toronto work with the City to assess the impact of new and planned transit and future growth when considering the disposition of school properties and to consider retaining some school sites as Core Holdings to provide flexibility to address future growth.

7.   City Council send a letter to the Minister of Education and the school boards operating in Toronto to acknowledge recently improved board-to-City communication related to surplus properties planning and to encourage the parties to strengthen board-to-board communication and disclosure on these matters.

8.   City Council direct the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer to report back to Council with options for replenishing the School Lands Acquisition Reserve Fund to $15 million by the 2018 budget cycle, in order to serve as a funding strategy for future surplus school property acquisitions.

9.   City Council direct the Director, Real Estate Services in consultation with the General Manager, Parks, Forestry, and Recreation, the General Manager, Children's Services and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration, to prepare a business case outlining capital and operational financial considerations and referencing the City of Toronto June 2016 Review of Toronto District School Board properties as community assets as part of any request to utilize the school lands acquisition reserve fund for future acquisitions.

10.   City Council strongly encourage the Ministry of Education, the Community Hubs Secretariat and other relevant provincial ministries, to work with school boards to establish a publicly-accessible inventory of community agency tenants and community services provided in publicly-funded schools and an inventory of space available in schools for community use.

11. City Council request the Minister of Education to support a continuum of learning and the stabilization of early years and child care programs located in school buildings by undertaking the following five actions which have been developed collaboratively by the City of Toronto and Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire Viamonde, and Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud:

a.  improve the funding formula in order to fully fund the occupancy cost of early learning and child care space in schools directly to the school boards;

b.  ensure the funding formula takes into account the higher cost of building, operating and maintaining spaces for young children;

c.  ensure the funding formula for early learning space is not a per person rate, but a per room rate;

d.  ensure the funding formula accounts for the incrementally higher cost of operating before- and after-school programs in shared spaces; and

e.  ensure that the school utilization formula reflects the improved funding formula and fully accounts for early learning space in schools.

12. City Council forward the report (June 13, 2016) from the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer and the Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to the Minister of Education, the Community Hubs Secretariat, and the four school boards operating in Toronto.

Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has identified up to twenty-three school properties for potential surplus declaration and disposition between 2016 and 2018/19.  This report documents the City's assessment and prioritization of these properties as community assets.

It is intended to help the City respond strategically, rather than reactively, when TDSB sites are circulated for sale.

To assess the school properties, City has developed a Community Asset Evaluation Framework which considers schools as sites for advancing equitable provision of child care, green space and community programming and for responding to future growth. 

The City has clarified that it is not opposed to the redevelopment of schools in principle, but does want to see school properties that represent significant community assets retained for continued public access and community use.  Moreover, the potential disposition of school sites needs to be carefully assessed against the future growth and natural life cycle changes of the various communities throughout the City.  The opportunity to establish new schools is limited in terms of access to appropriate sites and the high cost of land. The City encourages school boards to consider retaining some school sites as Core Holdings to provide flexibility to address future growth. 

Any discussion about the City's response to surplus school properties must be considered within the context of the City's severely constrained financial context, including $29 billion in unfunded capital projects, as reported by the City Manager in May 2016.

This report underscores that the City of Toronto lacks the financial resources and the mandate to retain provincially-funded public infrastructure, such as schools, in the public domain. Reflecting that there is broader public interest in retaining some of these sites, this review also helps to identify the wider range of provincial, public sector and community sector parties that have a role to play in securing surplus school buildings and school lands for continued public use, where needed.  The Province of Ontario has a responsibility to ensure that, where appropriate, publicly-owned infrastructure remains accessible for public purposes, and to address the school funding formula that is driving some school boards to sell off valuable community assets.

Given current and future capital and operating pressures, the City of Toronto's ability to purchase surplus school properties is severely constrained and limited to the highest-priority community assets at best. Out of the twenty-three TDSB properties reviewed, only one property was rated as a highest priority community asset: Thistletown Multi-Service Centre. This report recommends that the City negotiate to acquire Thistletown in order to protect community access to this site, which has been leased by the City for community services for nearly thirty years. 

Conditions shaping this review and the TDSB list of properties for consideration continue to be dynamic. The results of this review reflect current conditions as of June 2016. A profile of City interests in each of the twenty-three TDSB properties is included as an Appendix.

Working in collaboration, staff from Toronto District School Board, Toronto Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire Viamonde, and Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud and City of Toronto Children's Services have defined five actions for the Ministry of Education to strengthen school funding and school utilization formulas in support of a continuum of learning, starting in the early years. When implemented these changes will facilitate cooperative working relationships between the City and school boards in relation to child care and early years programming delivered in school buildings.