Recently this column has focused on the major intensification projects situated east and west of Bayview and Eglinton, and from Laird to east of Brentcliffe, all driven by the anticipated arrival of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Meanwhile the rest of residential Leaside remains as a low-density neighbourhood. But it is not immune to change as any walk around the neighbourhood will attest. Of course, up to now, that change typically has felt like “massification,” rather than intensification, as three-storey boxes with integral garages arise from the foundations of bungalows. And no more units, so likely no increase in the housing supply.
At a policy level, the effort to deal with the housing crisis and housing affordability is changing the type of housing permitted in Leaside residential areas, by allowing more units on a property. The Ontario government’s Bill 23, which took effect in 2023, permits landowners to add up to three residential units “as of right” for land zoned for one home in residential areas, without requiring a zoning bylaw amendment. The three units can be within the existing residential structure or can take the form of a residence with a basement suite, or a laneway or garden suite on a parcel of urban residential land, with no minimum unit size and no more than one parking space required per residential unit.
As part of the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods initiative, the City of Toronto adopted policies and regulations to encourage the development of multiplex housing for existing and future residents of the City’s designated neighbourhoods.
On May 10, 2023, the City amended the zoning bylaw and Official Plan to permit multiplex housing in neighbourhoods.
You may wonder, are these new housing types coming to Leaside? Today there is a sprinkling of laneway houses (for example, one on Randolph backing onto the laneway between Randolph and Sutherland) and garden suites (for example, one on Divadale near Laird).
But the impacts of multiplexes (duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes) will be much greater, especially as the Province has issued a regulation permitting fourplexes as of right – going beyond “three units on one lot”). A foretaste of this type of structure was applied for (and approved by the Committee of Adjustment last fall) at Eglinton and Rumsey, which has different zoning from the adjacent neighbourhood zoning. Unfortunately, a four-storey “box” building beside an existing row of bungalows does not necessarily make for streetscape harmony. And, in my opinion, the building resembles the drab walk-up apartments built during previous housing shortages rather than beautiful design.
The new legislation from the Province and the City is much more permissive than the pre-existing zoning bylaw, allowing a building height of 10 metres rather than 8.5 metres and removing the lot coverage limit. Plus, while the intensification program was announced as being as of right, the applicants are often not satisfied with the new provisions and ask for variances (but from the new more permissive limits).
At the macro level, all levels of government say yes to building millions of new homes. But on the micro level, the changes are not communicated and impacts at the neighbourhood level are not considered or evaluated, so it’s not hard to find examples of bitter fights over the changes to the status quo. Residents are generally unaware of the more permissive zoning framework that the Province and the City have introduced. It’s time the City clarified the new policies, where they apply and what if any recourse residents have. Of course, in reality there is little recourse, especially since Bill 23 eliminated residents’ right of appeal of Committee of Adjustment decisions.
