Etobicoke businesses file lawsuit over Bloor Street bike lanes consultation

More than 40 Etobicoke businesses have filed a lawsuit against the City of Toronto, its transportation manager and a local councillor over bike lanes they allege were installed on Bloor Street W. without proper consultation.

The group is suing the city for $10 million in damages for "negligence and nuisance" allegedly caused by a five-kilometre bike lane that connects Bloor West Village to the Kingsway neighbourhood. It's also suing Etobicoke-Lakeshore Coun. Amber Morley and Barbara Gray, Toronto's general manager of transportation services, for "misfeasance of public office."

The lawsuit was filed Friday in Ontario's Superior Court of Justice. None of the claims have been tested in court. The city and Coun. Morley both say they have received the claim, but declined to comment as the matter is before the court. 

The group, which consists of a variety of businesses, including retailers, restaurants and professional offices, is also seeking an injunction that would require bike lanes to be removed to make way for motor vehicles.

The lawsuit alleges that the Bloor Street W. bike lane extension, put in place between Runnymede and Resurrection roads in 2023 and 2024, has negatively impacted business and caused "run-away traffic congestion issues." 

The city's planning, consultation and implementation were "willfully lacking in candour, frankness and impartiality," according to the statement of claim, and failed to meet the duty of care owed to the group of businesses.

"We felt like we were dismissed. It was like they were checking boxes when they met with us," said Sam Pappas, owner of the Crooked Cue, part of the group of businesses that filed the lawsuit.

The group alleges the defendants "manipulated the public consultation process to minimize opposition and exaggerate support" for the bike lane extension by, among other things, "stacking" public meetings with cycling advocates and failing to conduct door-to-door consultations with local businesses.

The statement of claim alleges that Coun. Morley gave preferential treatment to advocacy group CycleTO over the voices of local businesses, and deliberately misrepresented and overstated the nature and extent of consultations on the project.

It also alleges that Gray, the city's transportation manager, was being unlawfully lobbied by CycleTO during consultations, and that she deliberately misrepresented or ignored study data, bicycle counts and potential impacts related to the bike lanes.

Mayor Olivia Chow told CBC Radio's Metro Morning Wednesday that she's met with the business owners who launched the lawsuit. She said the city is looking at ways to redesign the bike lanes in question so that a motor vehicle lane could be restored without removing cycling infrastructure.

Alison Stewart, CycleTO's director of advocacy and public policy, says CycleTO was surprised by the lawsuit.

Coun. Morley was elected to office in October 2022, after the extension was approved, she says, and the province already introduced a law last year that threatens to remove bike lanes from Bloor Street W. and other parts of the city.

CycleTO filed a constitutional challenge against that law in January.