Buyers will pay price if city charges builders for blocking roads, says development industry spokesperson

Last week, Tory said he’ll seek "more stringent criteria and higher fees" for builders who want to close lanes of streets or city boulevards.

But Tuckey, CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association, said this week higher fees "are paid for by new homeowners."

Government fees and charges have doubled in 10 years and already make up around 20 per cent of costs of a new home in Toronto, said Tuckey, whose group represents what he called a "major economic driver" in the city. Builders and renovators created 71,000 jobs and paid $4 billion in wages last year, he said.

When you start affecting a condominium project where 500 people are working, "you’re impacting a major employment centre," Tuckey added in an interview, saying BILD members "do sincerely try to follow rules to ensure minimal disruption" when condo construction blocks a lane of traffic.

Builders are creative, he said, but working in a more confined space would also be more expensive and, again, it’s consumers who will pay.

But Tory isn’t the only one who thinks builders find it too easy to block lanes.

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• Dec 31, 1969
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Earlier this year, Josh Matlow, a midtown councillor, said developers pay only a $500 fee and "minimal" monthly amounts – "peanuts" for them, he said – to encroach on roads and sometimes tie up traffic for months on end.

Thanks to a motion by Matlow, who wanted fees to escalate for every additional month a lane or sidewalk is blocked, city staff will report on the matter in February.

In the meantime, vehicles around downtown construction sites could be caught up in the crackdown, starting next month, which Tory said will see offending vehicles towed.

Such vehicles were among the "usual suspects" targeted in Project Rush, a Nov. 17 enforcement blitz on "no stopping" zones in the core which served as a trial run, said Const. Clint Stibbe, a Toronto police Traffic Services spokesperson.

While parking officers can write tickets, police officers – which Tory said will be pulled off residential streets to help with rush hour enforcement - can lay charges and stop a vehicle attempting to leave.

Stibbe said a new bylaw also allows police to charge the driver directly, not just write a ticket the company pays.

In response, Tuckey said there must be "an appropriate balance" shown in traffic enforcement so that people driving around construction sites can remain employed.

He added the building industry prides itself on finding solutions to problems and its government relations team expect to meet with the mayor’s office and other city officials "very shortly."