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Mayor Olivia Chow's Toronto

txlseries4 said:
Retail in neighbourhoods getting revisited. From here: https://secure.toronto.ca/nm/api/individual/notice/6686.do

NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING
To be held by the Planning and Housing Committee
(Under the Planning Act)

City-Initiated Request to Amend the Zoning By-law to facilitate small-scale retail, service, office and home occupation uses within Neighbourhoods

Location of Application: City-wide
Applicant: City of Toronto

Date: October 30, 2025
Time: 10:00 a.m., or as soon as possible thereafter
Place: Council Chambers, Toronto City Hall and by Video Conference

PROPOSAL
The City is initiating three Zoning By-law Amendments to Zoning By-law 569-2013 to: (1) permit certain small-scale retail, service and office uses on residentially-zoned properties within Neighbourhoods on major streets; (2) to permit small-scale retail stores and ancillary eating establishments on select sites within Neighbourhood interiors; and (3) to update home occupation permissions. These proposals form part of the City of Toronto's Expanding Housing Opportunities in Neighbourhoods (EHON) initiative, through the Neighbourhood Retail and Services study.

The City-initiated Zoning By-law Amendments to expand commercial use permissions on major streets and within Neighbourhood interiors applies to all zones under the Residential Zone Category including the R – Residential Zone, RD – Residential Detached, RS – Residential Semi-Detached, RT – Residential Townhouse, and RM – Residential Multiple Zone. The related Amendments would allow a broad range of retail, service and office uses on all Residentially zoned sites located on Major Streets. In the interior of the neighbourhoods, the location of commercial uses would be limited to corner sites of select “Community Streets”, as well as sites adjacent to existing non-residential uses, such as schools and parks. The Amendments set maximum interior floor areas for the commercial uses in all locations, as well as other performance standards.

The Amendment to expand permissions for home occupations applies to all zones where home occupations are permitted. The Amendment would allow a limited number of clients and employees to attend the premises of a home occupation, as well as allow home occupations to occur in an ancillary building. Most of the current Use Specific Regulations for Home Occupations in the Zoning By-law remain unchanged.
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So can I open a cozy cafe in my house soon??
 
Towered said:
So can I open a cozy cafe in my house soon??
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Something like this? I truly can't understand why people are against zoning that permits this type of use.

1759766613432.png
 
picard102 said:
I mean yeah, that's certainly not the best example to use if we want to encourage more businesses in neighbourhoods.
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Yeah, but I think half the time people who use "property values" as a sledgehammer against whatever they don't like haven't very often actually thought that excuse through. But sadly, it tends to work.
 
Towered said:
Love this place - I even profiled it in my Cozy Cafes thread. Again, why can't we have container retail in every park??? It adds so much value. Good on Matlow for trying to generate some momentum.
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Generally pro the idea - though I can see either the City (through overrestrictive policies) or the vendors messing up a potentially good thing.

AoD
 
Richard White said:
Did we not already try this with the Ala Carte program?
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Similar, but A la carte was specifically targeting street food vendors in carts.

This motion is targeting Parks, not streets and a full range of options from carts to new buildings.
 
evandyk said:
A la carte was the exact opposite of "fewer restrictions". It was restricted right into the ground.
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Indeed. That program was sabotaged by Toronto Public Health.

Some of its restrictions were appropriate, if challenging (around refrigeration and hand washing etc.) but food safety is of the most importance.

But it tacked on a host of additional restrictions and mandates, items must represent diversity; items must be healthy, all sorts of criteria from cart ownership to hours.

All that and they limited it to 13 vendors.

It was a completely preposterous (non-real) attempt to liberalize street food vending, which is to say there was no intention to deliver the stated objective whatsoever.
 
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