Apartments can now be built as high as the street is wide on some of Toronto’s busiest roads.
Late last Thursday, councillors approved a policy that could open the door to tens of thousands of new housing units and bring big changes to the city’s streetscape.
Six to 11-storey apartments are now allowed “as-of-right” — meaning developers can build to those heights without applying for special approval — on many streets known as “avenues” in the city’s official plan.
“Avenues” include stretches of Bloor Street West, College Street and Dundas Street West in the downtown core, and St. Clair Avenue, Eglinton Avenue and Dufferin Street northwest of the city centre.
Most of the affected areas are on narrower streets where up to six-storey buildings are now permitted. But in some areas where the roads are wider, such as Eglinton Avenue East and Kingston Road, 11-storey buildings are allowed.
Some of these avenues already had specific rules and height allowances so the new policy won’t apply. Others — particularly Bloor Street, College Street and Dundas Street between Lansdowne Avenue and Bathurst Street — are in for notable changes. Staff and council are also considering making the new rules apply to wider swaths of the city.
These changes “support the creation of a diverse range and mix of housing options to accommodate people at all stages of life, and to accommodate the needs of all household sizes and incomes, leading to more equitable and inclusive communities,” staff wrote in a report.
“It literally expands the range of housing types available in neighbourhoods in the City of Toronto,” said Parkdale-High Park Coun. Gord Perks.
Staff expect the changes will pave the way for 80,000 new housing units, far more than the 20,000 permitted under the old rules. Toronto committed to building at least 285,000 new homes by 2031.
City planning policy has tried to funnel growth onto these streets to varying levels of success.
Since 2010, the old rules saw over 136 buildings and 22,000 residential units built.
One of the biggest barriers to building along these streets was an outdated zoning regime that prevented taller apartments from being built without triggering a long and expensive approval process. Developers would often balk at the time and cost the system required.
City staff have spent years revising the various rules and regulations to get more housing along these streets. More reports and policy proposals to make it easier to build on avenues will come across councillors' desks in 2025.
Thursday’s vote was the latest step in that journey — but won’t be the last if Beaches-East York Coun. Brad Bradford and Mayor Olivia Chow have their way.
To them, 11 storeys isn’t tall enough on some streets.
Even with the new rules, developers may still ask the city for special approval to build higher “to actually make those sites work” because “projects below 12 storeys on our avenues are just not practically or financially feasible right now,” Bradford said.
In a letter to council, the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD), one of the city’s most prominent developer lobby groups, said the reforms will be“insufficient to facilitate mid-rise development projects and enhance housing supply.”
“It really is a black-and-white topic for us. We believe that further intensification is required beyond what was originally proposed,” said BILD CEO David Wilkes in an interview.
High interest rates, strict development rules, and high taxes and fees levied on builders have wrought havoc on Toronto’s housing construction sector in recent months.
The next push
Bradford tabled a motion asking staff to assess whether allowing up to 12 storeys on avenues with rapid transit is feasible.
“That would unlock even more [housing]. I think that's a positive thing, especially for a council and a city that spends so much time talking about housing and what we need to do to get shovels in the ground,” he said.
Council approved the motion and staff are set to report back on the proposal to the city’s housing committee in early 2025.
Mayor Olivia Chow also asked staff to draft a proposal that would “enable opportunities for taller and denser mid-rise” buildings and “identify additional opportunities to enable increased housing supply along … avenues that are served by frequent transit.”
While Bradford and Chow are pushing for more height, some councillors are wary of the recent changes and what a more ambitious plan would mean for areas of the city dominated by single-family housing.
“I cannot underscore enough to members of council how profoundly important and big this change is,” said Etobicoke Centre Coun. Stephen Holyday. “There will be some very, very controversial proposals and I think people will find it upsetting to see what council has done.”
Angular plane rules also get an update
Last week’s change also included an update to the city’s angular plane policy that forced apartments above a certain height to look like staircases, or a ziggurat, where successive floors are pushed back.
Staff expect the change — which was encouraged by developers and housing advocates — to enable 30 per cent more units in a typical mid-rise building, while also making construction cheaper.
The rationale behind the staircase policy is to allow more sunlight onto the street and create a more gentle transition between taller apartments and the low-rise housing that is common in many neighbourhoods.
The new rules are less strict and “simplify the design and construction of mid-rise buildings,” according to the staff report, meaning apartments can be built in a more box-like shape than before.
To More Neighbours Toronto, a prominent housing advocacy group, the change is an “improvement” but still gives “too much priority to reducing shadows as opposed to housing people.”
Holyday, however, is concerned about the impact on adjacent neighbourhoods.
“You've got a development industry that's put pressure and said we'd like to build simple, boxier designs because it's good for us,” he said. “Well, what that is not necessarily good for is the person that lives next to one of these developments and they are suddenly faced with a much starker wall.”
