Item - 2022.PH35.3

The Planning and Housing Committee: 

1. Directed the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to continue consultation on draft Official Plan Amendment and proposed zoning by-law directions, including residents' associations, industry, technical divisions, and other stakeholders, and report back with proposed amendments by the first quarter of 2023.

2. Requested the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to undertake consultation in the new term of City Council, with Ward 15 residents, residents' associations, and stakeholder groups on the draft Official Plan Amendment and draft Zoning By-law Amendments for Multiplexes.

Toronto is expected to grow by a minimum of 700,000 people by 2051 - how these new Torontonians are housed will shape the City for decades to come. In recent years, the City's growth has been focused on transit rich areas such as the Downtown, Centres, and along Avenues, where the supply of apartments has increased significantly. Conversely, the supply of low-rise housing has not kept up with demand and in some cases, the City's low-rise Neighbourhoods have lost population. The City can choose to adopt a more equitable approach to growth across Toronto that sees Neighbourhoods adapting to change, remaining vibrant, and providing more Torontonians the option to live within one of our low-rise communities.

By 2051, if current trends continue, Toronto could have a deficit of over 42,000 ground-related units, such as single and semi-detached homes, townhouses, and multiplexes. The City's low-rise Neighbourhoods, which make up 35% of its land area, present a unique opportunity to accommodate more of this scale of housing. This report supports City Planning staff's opinion that multiplex housing should be permitted in residential areas throughout the City of Toronto and requests direction to continue consultation on the implementation of this approach.

Multiplex housing means low-rise homes containing two, three, or four residential units built at a similar scale to single unit homes. Multiplex housing can help increase the supply of residential units, support neighbourhood vitality and add sustainable, gentle density to Toronto's existing low-rise neighbourhoods. The Multiplex study is part of the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON) initiative, intended to increase both the variety and type of housing available in these areas. In future phases, the Multiplex study will continue a focused consideration of low-rise apartment buildings up to four storeys in appropriate locations.

This study responds to a number of City and Provincial policy objectives to provide a full range of housing options to Torontonians, in a form that makes efficient use of land, infrastructure, and existing services. Allowing for additional units in low-rise housing forms of a similar scale, is generally compatible with the Official Plan's objective that physical change in Neighbourhoods will be sensitive, gradual, and fit the existing context.

Many neighbourhoods across the City of Toronto have experienced population decline in the last few decades, while other areas of Toronto such as the Downtown, Centres, and other mixed use areas have experienced rapid growth. Smoothing out some of these growth patterns by permitting multiplexes across the city can allow people to move into neighbourhoods where existing infrastructure and services can be used more efficiently, to support local neighbourhood retail, and to give more Torontonians access to live in low-rise neighbourhoods.

This report presents a draft Official Plan Amendment to permit duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in residential areas across the city. The legalization of these housing types city-wide will help meet the needs of both current and future Torontonians by adding ground-related units. The report also presents proposed zoning directions to implement these policy changes. Consultation is proposed for the remainder of 2022, after which both the Official Plan and Zoning By-Law Amendments will be brought together to Planning and Housing Committee for consideration in the first quarter of 2023.