November 17, 2009

Regulation

Amended Toronto green-building standard retains bird-friendly measures

SAUL CHERNOS

correspondent

Bird enthusiasts are flapping their wings with delight following a unanimous council vote in October to amend the City of Toronto’s sustainable development standard.

The Toronto Green Standard, adopted in 2006 and revised in 2008, addresses everything from air exhaust systems to stormwater management for low-rise residential, non-residential and mid- to high-rise residential, commercial, industrial and institutional new constructions.

The amendments bring the standard into sync with new harmonized zoning and green roof bylaws council approved late last year, said Jane Welsh, acting project manager with the city’s planning department.

“This was mainly done for the interest of clarity,” Welsh said.

“It hadn’t yet been implemented and we knew we had a couple of tweaks to make. That’s why we went back to council.”

Council left intact existing green standard measures aimed at preventing bird-building collisions.

Window glass on new constructions must still be treated with a density pattern of between 10 and 28 centimetres apart or otherwise be able to mute reflections for at least the first 10 to 12 metres of a building, above grade.

The same goes for a requirement that builders ensure ground-level ventilation grates have a porosity of less than two centimetres by two centimetres.

Council adjusted new reduced light pollution targets “to make them a little clearer,” Welsh said.

New constructions and properties must reduce nighttime glare and light trespass, exterior light fixtures must be shielded to prevent glare or light trespasses onto neighbouring properties, and the city no longer allows up-lighting from exterior light fixtures unless a heritage designation applies.

The City has also added one requirement. When green roofs are built adjacent to glass surfaces, the glass must be treated to at least 12 metres above roof-level.

“We did a study on migratory birds and that was one of the recommendations from the study,” Welsh said.

The measures take effect Feb. 1, and Welsh said they all fall under the standard’s Tier 1 classification.

This means they are regulated through zoning bylaws and other enforcement powers the city has under the Planning Act, rather than falling under the strictly incentive-based Tier 2.

Site plan applications that meet both tiers are eligible for a refund of 20 per cent of development charges paid to the city.

Michael Mesure, executive director of the Fatal Light Awareness Program, said his organization has recovered more than 45,000 birds, from 162 species, in 17 years of working to prevent bird-window collisions.

Forty per cent of these birds survived and were released following rehabilitation, Mesure said.

The “City of Toronto has become the first city in the world to mandate bird-friendliness,” Mesure said.

He expressed appreciation that council voted to contact organizations such as the Canada Green Building Council, the Building Owners and Managers Association and the Building Industry Land Development Association, with a view to encouraging them to adopt similar bird-friendly guidelines.

Mesure said FLAP has been lobbying some of these same organizations and he’s hoping that they, and not birds, will see the light.

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