Item - 2025.PH23.6

The Planning and Housing Committee recommends that: 

1. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to report back by the end of the second quarter of 2026 with updates on the progress of the Missing Middle and Midrise Housing Implementation Initiative.

The Planning and Housing Committee recommends that: 

1. City Council request the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to report back by the end of the second quarter of 2026 with updates on the progress of the Missing Middle and Midrise Housing Implementation Initiative.

The City has approved numerous updates to its Official Plan and Zoning By-law since 2018 to permit more low-rise housing in residential neighbourhoods to meet the needs of a growing city. Many of these new land use permissions have advanced through the the City’s Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (“EHON”) initiative. These low-rise housing forms, sometimes referred to as the “missing middle”, can range from garden suites to small-scale apartment buildings on major streets. All these housing types can be found in Toronto today and historically have been located within our traditional neighbourhoods, but more recently in our City’s history they have been limited in where they are allowed to be built.

City Planning’s recent Neighbourhood Intensification Research Bulletin examines the potential for new housing units in Toronto’s Neighbourhoods, as a result of the various EHON initiatives. The Bulletin's findings highlight that as a component of Toronto’s Housing Action Plan (HAP) and Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) commitments, EHON initiatives could contribute approximately 54,600 units or almost one-fifth (19 percent) of the new housing required to achieve the Building Faster Fund and Municipal Housing Target of 285,000 units by 2031.

The City has also advanced a number of planning initiatives to more broadly permit mid-rise housing forms on the City’s Avenues. For example, the draft consolidated Mid-Rise Building Design Guidelines adopted by Planning and Housing Committee in 2024 apply city-wide and are intended to help implement the policies in the Official Plan by achieving the appropriate design for current and new mid-rise building applications. The Avenues Policy Review leverages Avenues as a growth area to expand opportunities for more midrise buildings across the city. Phase One of the Avenues Policy Review, adopted by City Council in February 2025 streamlined study requirements and updated Map 2 – Urban Structure by extending and introducing new Avenues. Phase Two is currently underway to provide as-of-right permissions for midrise buildings along Avenues.

Although these recent updates to the City’s land use policies and regulations have been significant, the current development market has demonstrated the importance of not only creating the permissions and opportunities to expand missing middle and midrise housing options, but also the need to facilitate this scale of development by addressing standards and requirements that add to the cost and feasibility of development.

This report provides an overview of City Planning’s Missing Middle and Midrise Housing Implementation Initiative that is intended to expand City Planning’s work from a focus on expanding permissions for missing middle and midrise housing forms, towards a phase that focusses on addressing development feasibility and encouraging uptake in these new forms of housing across the city.