City of Vaughan won't say why it refunded $11M earmarked for parks to developer

The City of Vaughan is refusing to say why it quietly refunded more than $11 million to a developer despite having fought in court to keep the money for taxpayers and public parks. 

Royal 7 Developments paid the Toronto suburb $11 million as a condition of approval for its Expo City condo project. It also gave the city an adjoining parcel of land, to be turned into a city park. 

Vaughan, like some other Ontario cities, requires developers to give it land, cash, or both as a condition of approval for new developments. Royal 7 paid the $11 million in lieu of a larger parcel of land.

But city council gave the money back in 2018, and also agreed to let Royal 7 build a parking garage underneath that parcel, according to documents unearthed by local activist Richard Lorello. 

"It's really disappointing that the city is not revealing why they gave this money back when it could clearly have been used for parks and recreation centres," said Lorello. 

"If it was such a good deal, why can't we know the terms of the agreement?"

Lorello discovered the $11 million refund in hundreds of pages of documents he received through a freedom of information request about the Expo City project. 

Four of its five condo towers on Highway 7 near Highway 400 have been built. Construction is underway on the fifth and on the underground garage. 

Royal 7 is a subsidiary of well-known developer Mario Cortellucci's company, Cortel Group.

Lorello has been trying to find out what, if any, benefit the city saw by returning those millions and allowing Royal 7 to build the garage underneath the intended parkland. 

He says the city shouldn't be able to write off millions that could have gone toward park facilities without explaining to the public what it got in return. 

"This shouldn't be allowed to stand," he said. "If this was OK, then we could do everything like this, right? We could approve things in public sessions of municipal council and then go into closed sessions and basically undo everything without the public's knowledge."

Royal 7 paid the $11 million under protest and argued Vaughan wasn't entitled to ask for it because the requirement differed from a previous Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) decision about a proposed development on the same property.

In that decision, the OMB ruled the city would only get parkland from the previous owner as a condition of development. Royal 7 took its fight over the $11 million to Ontario Superior Court.