Big News: Multiplexes Approved for Toronto, City-Wide

Toronto Council just approved multiplexes (up to a fourplex) city-wide, on effectively most residential lots. A big day!

  • No FSI limits for duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes

  • 19m building depth

  • 10m building height

  • Setbacks harmonized to the underlying zone requirements for a single detached dwelling

The potential for new projects in parts of the city that weren’t possible before is significant, and if you want help making those come to fruition, reach out and I’m happy to chat about your ideas.

I’ll be on CBC Metro Morning on May 11 at 8:10am to discuss.

From a single house to two fourplexes with laneway suites: A plan to bolster the ‘missing middle’ in east-end Toronto

A new project from me that I’m really excited about was written about in the Toronto Star. This new project, if approved by the Committee of Adjustment, will see a single detached house converted into 10 residential units. And it will require zero minor variances. To achieve this, only a consent application to split the lot (which is wider than usual for the area). The resulting 2 lots will each have a 4-plex semi and a laneway suite on each.

The original idea was to split the lot into 3 townhouse units with laneway suites. However, this would have triggered site plan control, so we proposed a different configuration. The cost of site plan control would have killed the project.

I’m optimistic that the Committee will approve the consent and this excellent example of Missing Middle housing will go forward.

Coach Houses in Toronto

I was recently interviewed by the CBC on the topic of coach houses. Here’s the article.

“Windsor already allows it, Hamilton, Ottawa. They're way ahead of Toronto in this respect, and I hope we can catch up to them soon.”

The city’s recently approved “missing middle” initiative to look at expanded housing options in established neighbourhood is something that I’ve advocated for for a while, and I’m excited to see what the city comes up with. One of the things they are specifically looking at permitting are coach houses. In the last year, I have seen 3 or 4 coach house applications for variances have come to the Committee of Adjustment. Every one was refused. If you are considering your own coach house, you’re welcome to reach out to me to discuss… but my advice is almost certainly to be “wait until the city’s process permits them.”

Housing Toronto Presentation - The Yellowbelt: Protecting the Overprotected

I recently co-gave a presentation at the Housing Toronto forum with Cheryll Case about the yellowbelt and restrictive OP/Zoning regulations that prevent gentle density and missing middle type housing from becoming common in most of Toronto. You can DOWNLOAD THE PRESENTATION HERE (dropbox link - be sure to download it, and not just view on your computer, because it is transition dependant, and those don't show in the dropbox preview. Also, use a desktop because I don't think it will show correctly on mobile.)

A couple notes about it:
1) I don't use a lot of text in my presentations, because that's info that I'm supposed to be telling you as I speak (and wall of text presentations are really boring), so I hope you can still follow along with the flow.
2) It was originally designed in Apple Keynote (because I hate PowerPoint), and then converted to PowerPoint so you can view it. Its a little clunky with some transitions and such, but I hope that it still comes through alright. 

If you have any questions about it, feel free to get in touch via the contact page. 

Cheryll Case, Ryerson Grad, puts some numbers to the Yellowbelt

"The report comes from recent urban planning grad Cheryll Case, along with Tetyana Bailey. When they matched the city’s zoning boundaries with recent Census information, the researchers found that 30 neighbourhoods actually declined in population and another 65 were essentially frozen, gaining less than one person per kilometre despite the city’s 7.6 per cent population growth between 2001 and 2016."

https://www.thestar.com/business/2017/05/08/toronto-is-over-housed-despite-overall-population-growth-report.html

The OMB, Density Creep, and the Yellowbelt

I had the pleasure of being invited back to CBC's Metro Morning to talk about a recent OMB decision that partially allowed a townhouse development on Keewatin. This proposal was the subject of the infamous "density creep" opposition by neighbours. I posted some thoughts about it on twitter, and CBC had me in to talk more about it. 

Here's a partial transcript of the discussion (I'll post the audio if they put it online).