Detached houses are all the city allows on more than a third of residential land
People in the urban planning and real estate industries say Toronto must introduce significant changes to zoning regulations if it wants to combat the ongoing housing crisis.
The calls come while Toronto’s planning department works on a new report that could pave the way for a wider variety of homes and increased density in neighbourhoods across the city.
The study, which was requested by city council in 2019, was to look at “expanding housing options” in parts of the city officially designated as neighbourhoods. The report is scheduled to be released and sent to city councillors in the spring.
However, some skeptics are concerned the changes may fall short of seriously confronting Toronto’s housing woes.
“We actually need to be brave,” said Naama Blonder, an architect at the firm Smart Density.
“This whole notion of protecting neighbourhoods is something that belongs to the past. This is a conversation that they should have stopped having in the 70s,” she said.