Item - 2023.PH6.4

The Planning and Housing Committee:

1. Directed the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, to continue consultation on the draft Official Plan Amendment and proposed zoning by-law framework, with outreach to residents' associations, industry, city divisions, and other stakeholders, and report back with recommended Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendments in the first quarter of 2024.

The purpose of this report is to present a proposal to permit townhouses and small-scale apartment buildings (up to 6 storeys and 30 units) on properties that are located along major streets and designated Neighbourhoods in the Official Plan. The report seeks endorsement of Planning and Housing Committee to undertake consultation on the proposed Official Plan amendments and zoning approach.

Major streets are an opportunity for gentle intensification in Toronto’s Neighbourhoods. These streets are identified on Official Plan Map 3. The major streets are important thoroughfares that cross long distances within Toronto. Some of the major streets are identified as Avenues in the Official Plan, and benefit from a policy framework that encourages intensification of both non-residential and residential uses in mid-rise built form. However, the majority are major street segments located within Neighbourhoods, are not identified as Avenues. These non-Avenues portions of the major streets provide the opportunity to increase residential densities and height through the introduction of townhouses and small scale apartments that contextually transition to the Neighbourhoods by permitting a generally a low-rise scale and building type

Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON) is a set of planning initiatives and strategies to introduce land use permissions and low rise “missing middle” buildings within designated Neighbourhoods that increase housing options in areas where land use permissions have limited intensification.

The EHON Major Streets study is examining opportunities to add permissions such as townhouses and small scale apartment buildings along the City’s major streets, as identified on Map 3 of the Official Plan. 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, continuing to contribute to increasing variety of housing permissions in Neighborhoods city-wide.

Toronto is predicted to continue to grow rapidly, with the anticipated addition of a minimum of 700,000 people by 2051. Nonetheless, many neighbourhoods across Toronto have experienced population decline. The majority of population growth has been directed to the Downtown, Centres, and Avenues, creating areas of high residential density and infrastructure challenges, while Neighbourhoods exhibit increasingly low density by comparison. Expanding permissions for a wider variety of residential buildings to be constructed in Toronto’s Neighbourhoods is intended to diminish the difference between these two extremes of residential growth across the city. This expansion will add more people into neighbourhoods where existing infrastructure and services can be used more efficiently, and to give more Torontonians access to live in low-rise neighbourhoods.

Allowing a broader variety of built form such as townhouses and small-scale apartment buildings, along major streets is generally consistent with the Official Plan, which recognizes that while physical change within Neighbourhoods will be sensitive, gradual, and fit the existing context, major streets provide opportunities for additional density along the boundaries of these neighbourhoods. Providing land use permissions for these building types will provide a degree of height and density transition from growth areas to the interior of the Neighbourhoods, while maintaining a generally low rise scale and aligning the additional density with transportation corridors and transit routes.

This report presents a draft Official Plan Amendment to permit townhouses and small scale apartment buildings in residential zones, along the Map 3 major streets, and designated Neighbourhoods across the city. The report also presents a draft amendment to Zoning By-law 569-2013 to implement the proposed policy changes. The zoning by-law amendment maintains existing permissions for building types as currently permitted in the Residential Zones, while adding permissions, for parcels along major streets, for townhouses and small scale apartment buildings. Consultation is proposed for October 2023, after which both the Official Plan and Zoning By-Law Amendments will be brought together to Planning and Housing Committee for consideration early in 2024.