Item - 2017.EX24.9

The Executive Committee:

1.  Referred the item to the General Manager, Parks, Forestry and Recreation and the Deputy City Manager and Chief Financial Officer, with the request to report to the Executive Committee before the end of the third quarter of 2017 with recommendations to amend the cash-in-lieu allocation policy to direct cash-in-lieu of parkland to the acquisition of new parkland, new recreation facilities and new park developments.

This report responds to a request from Executive Committee to provide a summary of the Cash-In-Lieu Allocation Policy, the status of Cash-In-Lieu funding for parkland for the last 10 years, and a summary of the projected Cash-In-Lieu funds for the next five years.

The Planning Act allows municipalities to require that land be conveyed for parkland as a condition of development or redevelopment. The Act also allows municipalities, where Council deems lands to be unsuitable for parks, to accept Cash-In-Lieu of parkland equal to the value of the land that would otherwise be conveyed. Cash-In-Lieu is then collected and held in reserve funds for the purpose of parkland acquisition or parkland development.

From 2006 to September 30, 2016, the City of Toronto collected a total of $482,930,013 Cash-In-Lieu of parkland payments from 225,208 residential units, as well as industrial development, as part of the development review process. During the same period, the City spent a total of $260,514,216 in Cash-in-Lieu on 624 projects.

As of September 30, 2016, the City held $382,140,538 in Cash-In-Lieu funds designated for the acquisition of parkland and the development of park and recreation facilities, $202,214,398 of which was allocated through existing budgets or capital plans.

An additional $199,563,530 is projected for the next five years, which will play a key role in meeting the City's parks and facility needs, to be outlined in the forthcoming Parkland Strategy and Facilities Master Plan.

A detailed account of where spent funding has been allocated is provided in Appendices 1, 2, and 3. These appendices list projects and acquisitions and a breakdown of spent funding for capital projects and project costs that include salary recovery, consulting and professional services, construction, and all other related costs, where applicable.