Lawyer Profile Detail

Biography

Tara L. Piurko is a partner in the Real Property & Planning Group in the Toronto office of McCarthy Tétrault LLP. She is a part of the Municipal Planning, Appeals and Development Team and has a municipal law practice with special emphasis on municipal property assessment, land development and municipal law issues. She attends before the Ontario Municipal Board, Ontario Assessment Review Board, committees of adjustment and council on various municipal and land development matters. Tara also specializes in matters under the Ontario Retail Business Holidays Act.

Ms. Piurko' practice generally includes:

• representing owners of real estate in connection with property assessment, property tax recharges and rent determination matters;
• providing strategic advice to public and private developers on development project approvals such as official plan and zoning by-law amendments, subdivision and site plan approvals, minor variances and consents;
• negotiating and preparing official plan amendments, zoning by-law amendments and a variety of agreements including settlement agreements, subdivision and site plan agreements, agreements under Section 37 of the Ontario Planning Act and heritage easement agreements;
• negotiating settlements with municipalities, community groups, neighbours and other interested parties regarding proposed developments and other municipal law matters; and
• representing owners of retail assets in obtaining approvals under the Ontario Retail Business Holidays Act.

Ms. Piurko’s Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning has been an asset throughout her legal career in the commercial real estate industry, both in assisting real property owners increase the value of their assets and in working with the assessment community to make sure property assessment, and therefore taxes, are in line with an asset’s legislatively defined value.

Some of Ms. Piurko’s notable work includes acting as co-counsel:

• on one of the most closely watched ground rent arbitrations in the City of Toronto over the last 25 years; and
• in the precedent setting assessment litigation involving the six City of Toronto Bank Towers complexes in the centre of the City’s Financial District.

Ms. Piurko has also:

• managed the municipal approvals on many significant City of Toronto mixed-use developments, including municipal approvals for the,
  • Four Seasons Yorkville;
  • 100 Yorkville at Bellair, a super high-end luxury mixed use commercial residential condominium project;
  • 180 Queen Street West, home to Canada’s Federal Courts and associated agencies;
  • the Frank Gehry renovation of the Art Gallery of Ontario; and
  • matters related to the expansion of the Air Canada Centre for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment;
• worked on various mixed use commercial residential developments for clients such as Wittington, Tridel and Minto, including Tridel’s development on Sherbourne Street incorporating the historically designated James Cooper Mansion and Wittington’s mixed use development at Yonge, St. Clair and Alvin Avenue; and
• been part of the team on the redevelopment of the Centre for Addition and Mental Health, Bridgepoint Health and the Don Mount Court Redevelopment.

In addition to her practice, Ms. Piurko is a member of the Municipal law Section of the Ontario Bar Association. She is also a member of BILD, the Urban Land Institute and The Canadian Property Tax Association. She is President-Elect on the Board of Toronto Commercial Real Estate Women ("CREW") and was formerly Director of Membership. Toronto CREW is part of CREW Network with over 8,000 members representing nearly every discipline within the commercial real estate industry located in 74 major markets across North America.

Ms. Piurko received her BA (Hons.) in Geography, with a concentration in Geographic Information Processing, from Carleton University in 1994. She completed her Master of Urban and Regional Planning concurrently with her LLB at Queen’s University in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Ms. Piurko was called to the Ontario bar in 2002.