Practice Profile
Municipal, Planning & Environmental
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Our Municipal, Planning & Environmental Group has been repeatedly ranked among the top 10 municipal law groups in Toronto, according to Novae Res Urbis. This independent ranking is based on volume of cases and success.
We advise and represent a wide variety of clients, including municipalities, developers and private, public and Crown corporations. Our areas of expertise include:
Municipal Law
- Drafting and interpreting by-laws and agreements
- Advising on restructurings and amalgamations
- Initiating and opposing judicial review applications
- Advising on development charges and front-ending agreements
- Providing advice and representation respecting all aspects of the Elections Act
- Representing clients on assessment appeals before the Assessment Review Board, the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) and the courts
- Providing expropriation advice to both land owners and expropriating authorities, representing clients before the Board of Negotiation, the OMB and the Ontario Courts
A representative selection of our work in this area includes:
- Successfully representing members of the circus industry in a landmark municipal law decision overturning an exotic animal by-law, which had prohibited any entertainment involving exotic animals
- Successfully defending a southern Ontario region’s no-smoking by-law, which regulated smoking in workplaces and public areas, at the Ontario Court of Appeal
- Representing municipalities and chief building officials in all matters respecting the Building Code Act, including obtaining court approval of emergency orders
- Drafting numerous by-laws, including by-laws regulating adult entertainment, site-alteration, trees, wood lots and property standards
- Negotiating with an Ontario township after it enacted a by-law creating a special tax on waste disposal sites, and, after appealing to the Ontario Superior Court, succeeding in having the by-law struck down
Planning Law
As part of our Land Development Group, our planning lawyers have experience in a wide variety of transactions including:
- Advising on real estate purchases and development
- Advising on permitted uses of lands
- Advising on restrictions such as special policy areas, holding provisions and environmental limitations
- Obtaining development approvals
- Representing clients before courts and tribunals such as the OMB, the Niagara Escarpment Commission, and the Lands and Mining Commission
A representative selection of our work in this area includes:
- Representing both public and private sector clients in the development of new large-scale mixed-use developments, including employment land conversions
- Obtaining approval for a five star luxury hotel and condominium in the prestigious Yorkville area
- Acting for the University of Toronto in the development of numerous academic and other institutional facilities
- Acting for the Ontario Realty Corporation in the development of the West Don Lands, a new mixed-use community in Toronto’s Waterfront
- Acting for existing industrial users to protect them from encroaching sensitive land uses
- Acting for a large retailer in the development of “big box” stores
- Acting for the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville before the OMB in successfully defending a by-law banning industrial use of rural land
- Acting for a national restaurant chain in obtaining development approvals across Ontario
- Representing the Town of Georgina on appeals before the OMB involving an urban boundary expansion to permit a Business Park
- Representing the City of Toronto during an official plan approval process
- Creating joint ventures for the acquisition and development of properties including partnership arrangements between the public and private sectors
Environmental Law
Our environmental law lawyers provide advice and representation on all aspects of environmental law including regulatory approvals, environmental offences, and third party civil liability. Our lawyers:
- Advise on purchase, sale and development, and decommissioning of property
- Advise on landfill site selection
- Advise on spill cleanup
- Represent clients in environmental appeals
A representative selection of our work in this area includes:
- Advising corporate clients on environmental issues in commercial transactions with respect to the management of environmental risks, corporate governance, regulatory compliance, real property realizations and bankruptcies
- Assisting in obtaining Records of Site Condition in a timely manner
- Advising on the redevelopment of former land fill sites
- Providing advice and representation respecting Environmental Assessments, including Class Environmental Assessments
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