It’s time for municipalities to update zoning by-laws
June 14, 2017
The Province recently increased intensification requirements in the GTA and announced plans to replace the Ontario Municipal Board with a Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, so it is now more critical than ever for municipalities to update their zoning by-laws.
Zoning by-laws are a critical part of the planning process. While official plans set out a municipality’s general policies for future land use, zoning by-laws put those plans into effect locally. They determine what types of buildings can be built, and control the size, height and location of new developments.
These by-laws are administered by municipalities, and unfortunately too many GTA municipalities are operating with zoning by-laws that are out-of-date and don’t support provincial intensification policy.
Outdated zoning makes what is already a long approvals process even longer and contributes significantly to delays in bringing projects to market, and adds to the costs of new homes. Our industry tries its best to comply with provincial smart growth policy by going through re-zoning applications which are costly and inefficient. Updated zoning by-laws would help alleviate these issues and would enable the industry to build needed housing in the form required by provincial policy.
After amalgamation in 1998, Toronto had more than 40 zoning by-laws – some of them more than 50 years old – that were inherited from the six municipalities amalgamated. Not surprising planning practices have changed dramatically over the years especially since the introduction of the Growth Plan in 2006. While some areas of the City were updated with new zoning prior to the Growth Plan, the changes only slightly increased raised density permissions.
In 2013, a new harmonized zoning by-law was passed by the City which merged the existing by-laws into one. However, that harmonization focused on developing common terminology, structure and set of defined zoning terms that would apply across Toronto. The merged by-law did little to update height and density permissions to align with provincial intensification requirements.
Ontario’s growth policies mandate intensification across the GTA and require higher levels of development to happen in existing urban growth areas and near transit stations and corridors. Yet the zoning for many such areas have yet to be updated to enable higher density development and most still only allow single- or semi-detached homes. Without the proper zoning in place it’s hard to meet policy.
There is also a huge disconnect between the public policy and public perception. Community opposition to intensification is a growing challenge in the GTA, and outdated zoning by-laws contribute to this disconnection. Antiquated zoning creates unrealistic public expectations of land use, particularly when it comes to height and density.
If we are going to build to policy and deliver the development that is needed to house people in this region, we need up-to-date density enabling municipal zoning by-laws.