City of Toronto legalizes four-plexes
With no floor space limit
Good news: Toronto city council voted 18-7 today to legalize four-plexes (basically a small townhouse complex on a single lot) in all residential areas of the city.
Some live commentary by John Michael McGrath. He notes that the opposition was mostly from suburban conservatives rather than skeptical progressives.
From the Globe and Mail story:
Last fall, the province passed legislation to allow for three units on single residential lots, overriding municipal zoning rules. Toronto’s zoning changes expand on the provincial rule by permitting an additional unit to create fourplexes and also make amendments to regulations, including height and depth restrictions.
For the 38 per cent of neighbourhoods that have a height limit less than 10 metres, that will now be increased to a maximum height of 10 metres to make room for a third storey. A fourth storey is permitted for those areas that have a greater height limit.
Multiplexes will also be exempt from floor space index maximums, a regulation currently in place for only 37 per cent of the city that limits the allowable density of buildings. Critics of the plan took issue with this requirement being removed, arguing there is now one less tool to regulate the developments.
Toronto chief planner Gregg Lintern said the elimination of floor space index maximums is a result of community feedback that it could prevent multiplexes from being built because it would restrict space for additional units.
“We didn’t want to propose zoning that wasn’t going to result in housing,” he told councillors.
History:
February 9 proposal - commentary by Colleen Bailey and Sean Galbraith
April 6 proposal - commentary by Sean Galbraith. There’s no floor space limit.
April 27 Planning and Housing committee meeting - live tweets by More Neighbours Toronto
Toronto Star: Multiplex housing belongs in every Toronto neighbourhood, final city hall report says
Globe and Mail: Toronto City Council to vote on proposal allowing up to four-unit multiplexes across city
Agenda for May 10 council meeting, including the proposed zoning bylaw amendment
More:
Re-Housing the Yellowbelt. A catalogue of ideas for converting single-detached houses to multiple homes.
Multiplex designs by Bryn Davidson. Some illustrations of what multiplexes could look like.
Multiplex update - latest proposal from the city of Vancouver
A video on the missing middle from About That (Andrew Chang):
You've written about CACs and I was wondering why Toronto is able to legalize fourplexes when they also have development fees. A little Googling reveals that in August 2022, Toronto made multiplexes up to four units exempt from development fees and increased development fees for everyone else: (https://storeys.com/toronto-development-charge-exemptions-multiplex/). To the best of my recollection, this isn't something that you've recommended for Vancouver (not on this Substack anyways). I am interested to know your thoughts on this.
This sounds like great news!