Temporary Delegation of Authorities Required for the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot - by Councillor Chris Moise, seconded by Councillor Josh Matlow

Local businesses are enthusiastically extending their outdoor patios directly onto the curblane, creating new, seamless access points for visitors. To guarantee safe navigation, each patio will maintain a strict one-meter clearance zone, ensuring an entirely unobstructed path for mobility devices, wheelchairs, and emergency personnel. This motion will provide the General Manager, Transportation Services additional authority to make real-time adjustments to traffic management and allow a flexible, adaptive approach to optimize a highly accessible streetscape that fully supports the community and local economy. This motion is urgent as the pilot is already underway.

property to support the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot; and further direct the City Solicitor, in consultation with the General Manager, Transportation Services, to submit any necessary Bills to amend the City of Toronto Municipal Code traffic and parking Chapters, including their Schedules, directly to the first meeting of Council in 2027, or earlier, if practicable, with such amendments being effective retroactively to the date established by the General Manager, Transportation Services. 2. City Council delegate to the General Manager, Transportation Services, notwithstanding any City of Toronto By-law to the contrary, until the end of the day on August 22, 2026, the authority to temporarily close to vehicular and pedestrian traffic any highway or portion of a highway, for a period up to and including 60 consecutive days, as required for the purposes of managing traffic movement or to address public safety or the safety of any property during preparation for, and during, the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot and exempt the General Manager, Transportation Services, in carrying out this delegated authority, from the requirement in section 937-5 of City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 937, Temporary Closing of Highways, that being the requirement to notify the local Ward Councillor of the pending closure and the requirement to report on the proposed closure if so requested. 3. City Council amend City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 950, Traffic and Parking, to prohibit parking, stopping or standing, until the end of the day on August 22, 2026, on any highway where the General Manager, Transportation Services has erected temporary signage as required to accommodate the Church Street Pedestrianization Pilot. 4. City Council authorize the City Solicitor to submit directly to City Council at the appropriate time any necessary Bills to amend the appropriate City of Toronto Municipal Code Chapters to reinstate the traffic and parking regulations to what they were immediately prior to the By-law amendments made in Recommendations 1 to 3.