Item - 2024.PH17.18

The Planning and Housing Committee:

1. Requested the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning, in consultation with other Divisions as needed, to report back in the second quarter of 2025 with a Missing Middle Action Plan (MMAP), outlining timing and consideration for how the following will be reported on, to advance implementation and facilitate construction of missing middle housing city-wide:

a. the key findings from PH16.3 Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON): Beaches–East York Pilot Project, such as reviewing requirements for amenity space and loading spaces for waste collection;

b. results of EHON implementation monitoring work; and

c. recommendations resulting from the Missing Middle Advisory Group, such as opportunities for improving financial feasibility and requirements for primary windows.

On November 13, 2024, the Final Report on the Beaches–East York Missing Middle Pilot Project was approved by City Council. The Decision Report included an attachment with key learnings from the Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment processes, Attachment 16: Key Findings of the Beaches-East York Pilot Project.

The Beaches–East York Missing Middle Pilot Project at 72 Amroth Avenue is one component of the City of Toronto’s Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON) initiative. The intention of the pilot project is to create a missing middle demonstration project on a City-owned parcel of land in Ward 19: Beaches–East York. As outlined in the Key Findings report, one of the main objectives of the pilot is to inform future projects of a similar scale.

On October 5, 2023, the Board of Directors of CreateTO directed that an advisory group be established to advise the missing middle pilot and help inform lessons learned in developing housing of a similar scale on other appropriate sites. The advisory group meetings included builders and developers, urban planners, designers, and architects, as well as members of the pilot project team from CreateTO, City Planning, and the Environment and Climate Division. The advisory group convened for the first time in March 2024 to provide advice on initial designs for the project, and again on November 19, 2024, to discuss the Key Findings report.

The Missing Middle Advisory Group members overwhelmingly agreed that the Key Findings report reflected their own experiences with building small-scale projects in the City of Toronto. Further, there was a consensus that addressing those issues would move the needle on getting more missing middle housing built in Toronto.

In order to unlock the full benefits of the Beaches–East York Missing Middle Pilot, it is imperative that the lessons learned contribute to meaningful policy reforms that facilitate the creation of new missing middle housing across Toronto. This letter recommends that City staff develop a Missing Middle Action Plan (MMAP) based on the Key Findings report and the advice provided by the Missing Middle Advisory Group.

As one member of the Advisory Group said, “it shouldn’t be so hard to give the City what they say they want.”