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A new policy that would allow midrise buildings of up to 11 storeys along some of Toronto’s busier avenues is headed to council this week, but officials including Mayor Olivia Chow are already arguing that it lacks ambition.
The pitch from city planning staff is aimed at creating more uniform rules across some of the city’s most bustling streets, and opening the door for larger, taller buildings as the city faces a housing shortage.
On narrower avenues such as Dundas Street West and Pape Avenue, staff are proposing to allow up to six-storey buildings without needing special approvals. The wider the street, the taller developers could build, with a sliding scale up to 11 storeys on the widest avenues like Kingston Road.
Under current planning rules, the land being considered for new rules would allow for a maximum of 21,500 new homes; the new rules could yield nearly 61,000 more units, staff say.
“These initiatives 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,” staff wrote in the report.
Under the city’s current planning systems, avenues — which include Bathurst Street, Yonge Street, Lawrence Avenue and Eglinton Avenue — are defined as “important corridors” eyed for new housing, better transit, new retail and employment opportunities and re-envisioning of the public space from the sidewalk. Many stretches of these roads have already been studied, with their own area-specific rules. The new proposal would cover any areas that haven’t already been addressed through separate studies.
The proposal is the latest push in a years-long effort by Toronto planners to crack apart an old rule system that cordoned off large swaths of land for single-family homes. Those rules, over the years, resulted in uneven growth, with some areas increasingly crammed with towers while other, lowrise neighbourhoods stagnated despite the city’s continually rising population.
Council has already greenlit changes such as allowing multiplexes with up to four units in any city neighbourhood, as well as townhouses and lowrise apartments along designated “major streets.” The new proposal for avenues would allow the greater density so long as the new buildings meet other specific conditions, such as minimum distances from rear properties.
Property owners could still apply for special permission to build taller or denser buildings — above 11 storeys — on a site-by-site basis.
In consultation meetings this summer, planning staff say participants were largely supportive of the proposed change, though there was debate over the finer details of building design and impacts of density on parking.
But Chow, alongside Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19, Beaches—East York), is already questioning why the proposal doesn’t suggest greater height limits, telling reporters last month that the pitch was “not as ambitious” as she had hoped to see. “The city has a wall of much higher than 12-storey buildings in some of those avenues,” Chow said.
Chow will be seeking councillors’ support in asking staff to reconsider allowing “taller and denser midrise buildings,” while continuing to look at the stretches of avenues with area-specific rules that would exempt them from the recommendations.
Coun. Bradford, who has made the same requests of staff put forward by Chow in her letter, has also made a separate request for staff to review sites where residential uses are not allowed or allowed in smaller amounts and report back on increasing that residential permission “where appropriate.”
“It’s another report in front of us that incrementally moves us down the road — down the avenue, if you will — of providing more as-of-right permissions. But frankly, and I’ve shared these comments with staff and others, we need to do more,” Bradford said at last week’s planning and housing committee meeting.
City council is set to meet this week from Wednesday to Friday.
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