EddyMCD
Active Member
Would love to see the government implement some sort of tax on housing purchases that are refunded/waived if the buyer (source of the purchase funds) pays income taxes in Ontario.
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Zoning Reform Ideas
- Thread starter A Torontonian Now
- Start date
christiesplits
Senior Member
This is a very important point. It is a myth that local residents "look the other way'" for monster home proposals in their neighborhood, only to be perturbed by missing middle or mid-rise proposals. If you go to the Development proposal map on the city's website, you'll see plenty of letters from neighbours complaining about single family dwelling proposals. It's particularly funny reading letters from residents in areas like Willowdale where it's likely that the complainant is the owner of a monster home themselves.
evandyk
Senior Member
Some good renderings to demonstrate just how ridiculous Toronto zoning is:
www.blogto.com
It doesn't look crowded at all, other than in a few city blocks. Most of it has almost no one living there!
Someone visualized the future of Toronto and it looks crowded
A Toronto man has created a 3D visualization showing how dramatically the city will change over the next 10 years and its generating some discussion.…
www.blogto.com
It doesn't look crowded at all, other than in a few city blocks. Most of it has almost no one living there!
A Torontonian Now
Senior Member
You don't have to go to BlogTO to learn about this model. Unless I am incorrect, it is by outstanding longtime UT member @steveveSome good renderings to demonstrate just how ridiculous Toronto zoning is:
Someone visualized the future of Toronto and it looks crowded
A Toronto man has created a 3D visualization showing how dramatically the city will change over the next 10 years and its generating some discussion.…
It doesn't look crowded at all, other than in a few city blocks. Most of it has almost no one living there!
Northern Light
Superstar
I don't think we have a dedicated thread for MTSAs writ large, so I'll plunk this here.
A report is heading to next week's Planning and Housing Ctte which has draft MTSA regulations for the areas around Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) stations. This is not the final report, which should be in the next couple of months; but it should closely resemble what we will see.
Report here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-174826.pdf
A few items from said report:
I'm not going to post the maps for each MTSA as that would require 3 posts, but I thought I'd put an example up:
All the MTSA Maps can be found here:
A report is heading to next week's Planning and Housing Ctte which has draft MTSA regulations for the areas around Line 2 (Bloor-Danforth) stations. This is not the final report, which should be in the next couple of months; but it should closely resemble what we will see.
Report here: https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2022/ph/bgrd/backgroundfile-174826.pdf
A few items from said report:
I'm not going to post the maps for each MTSA as that would require 3 posts, but I thought I'd put an example up:
All the MTSA Maps can be found here:
Northern Light
Superstar
In addition to the above, there is also another report to the January 12th meeting of Planning and Housing on the downtown MTSAs.
From that report:
As before, I will offer one map example, and link to the others:
The other maps for the downtown stations can be found here:
From that report:
As before, I will offer one map example, and link to the others:
The other maps for the downtown stations can be found here:
allengeorge
Senior Member
Those population+employment minimums for Line 2 are ridiculously low.
I see TO Planning still hasn’t changed that huh.
I see TO Planning still hasn’t changed that huh.
Northern Light
Superstar
As minimums, not maximums, I'm not necessarily phased by that.
I do not have the time at the moment to go over each map, I'm sure I would find a few places where Planning and I would not agree!
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What I do find unfortunate is that the report maps don't show before/after, so you have to look that up yourself!
They also don't show how close the areas are to meeting or exceeding the targets. Is there any point in the exercise if, for argument's sake
you impose a 200 resident + job density and you're already at 300 within the map area?
I suspect some streets may be lined with heritage homes and big trees and any bump in minimum density is likely only to encourage/permit multiplexing within said buildings.
That's something I'd probably be fine with in many cases, but again, I (you/everyone) would need to look street by street to see what has or has not been upzoned and what reasoning Planning provides for same.
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In the end, I find the reports to be insufficiently informative to easily evaluate the proposed changes, and I object to that being added to my work program! LOL
A Torontonian Now
Senior Member
What I do not understand, not being an expert in land use planning, is how the minimums would be enforced. Do they only come into play when a site plan application is submitted for a new development at a site, or are they enforceable whenever there is an application for a building permit (including for interior renovations of existing structures), or is there some plan/method to enforce it on property owners who do not make any application to make any changes to their properties?
Northern Light
Superstar
Others are better suited to answer this; but my take is that they would be in play on any Planning or Zoning amendment, for sure; and probably a Site Plan Amendment as well.
Building permits cover far too wide a range of maintenance projects to be a vehicle for compliance.
Undead
Senior Member
I'd just blanket up-zone anything within a 5 minute walking distance of Bloor to 10 storeys as of right (30-40,000 people/sq.km.)
AnnetteMeetsJane
Active Member
Someone asked this question at the 5th Jan community consultation meeting, and was told that an addition to their SFH would not trigger a requirement for a density increase. Presumably, an amendment as Northern Light suggests, would do so.
The planners were also asked about the how they came by the suggested density minimums. Paraphrasing, the response was that they came up with guidelines (to ensure consistency) while in the process of informally consulting with others, but when asked to make the guidelines they used available for transparency purposes, then there were no actual guidelines.
AmJ
allengeorge
Senior Member
I’m gonna interpret this as “talking to residents associations and Councillors along Line 2” - none of whom are interested in any sort of density increase at all. The province should just throw this out the window, unilaterally double density minimums along the line and specify dates at which they’ll be met.
Yes - I’m not in a particularly giving mood.
allengeorge
Senior Member
allengeorge
Senior Member
I’m increasingly in favor of removing all planning and zoning control from Toronto City Council (and other city councils, but happy to start with Toronto).