Minto pays $1.5 M penalty to East Gwillimbury for illegal building
Second time in 8 years builder punished for constructing without permits

YorkRegion.com
Dec. 19, 2016
Simon Martin

Minto Communities was on Santa’s naughty list this year and they paid the price.

According to the East Gwillimbury Dec. 20 council agenda, Minto paid the town $1.5 million after building homes in the Queen’s Landing development without the proper permits. Minto followed by ignoring order-to-comply and stop-work orders from the town.

According to the town, earlier this year Minto proceeded with construction without all the required building approvals. Minto’s construction activity was initiated in late July. Staff issued an order to comply in September, requiring the builder to obtain building permits. A stop-work order was issued in October.
Council hopes such a large sum will deter other developers from following Minto’s path. “I hope they never do it again. I think the penalty is a reasonable amount to deter others,” Coun. Marlene Johnston said.

“We dealt with it the proper way. We’re not going to put up with stuff like that,” Coun. Joe Persechini said.

The fine was much larger than the one Minto received in 2008 for similar activity. Council documents from 2008 show Minto Communities was originally assessed a $202,039 penalty because it started home construction in the Harvest Hills subdivision before plan registration and building permit issuance.

In a letter addressed to council from Minto Communities in 2008, Vince Santino requested the town provide some “consideration” on the fines associated with construction without building permits.

In the letter, Santino stated the subdivision registration date had been delayed close to a year and that construction of new homes was undertaken in early spring of 2008 so that another summer construction would not be lost.

The town eventually agreed to lower the Minto Communities financial penalty to $101,000 and fast-tracked building permits in 2008.

The town bylaw currently has a special investigation fee in the amount of $5,000 for each home constructed without a building permit.

Now, town staff is looking to add a little more teeth to its bylaw. “We have 90 per cent of the building stock playing by the rules. We did have one builder that proceeded without the necessary permits,” chief administrative officer Tom Webster said.

Webster said the town would like to look at its current practices and see where it can improve. For him, that includes raising the fines, but he also said the town could look at deprioritizing approvals for offenders.

The town is also considering more inspections, more timely flow of information regarding these matters to the chief administrative officer and council, and quicker issuance of stop-work orders.

The town is also looking to crack down on unauthorized construction on designated fire break lots. The town’s strategy includes more inspections and higher fines.

Coun. James Young, who was mayor in 2008, had little memory of the first incident. Hackson, who was a councillor in 2008, said she had little memory of 2008 incident until the report was brought to her attention.

Hackson said although many of the homes in the Minto subdivision were built without permits, the town since has found out they are building-code compliant.