The City of Toronto has published the new regulations for providing emergency access to laneway houses.
They can be found HERE.
One of the biggest positive changes means that if emergency access to the laneway house is provided down the side of your existing house, the minimum distance between your side wall and your neighbour’s side wall (existing houses) is now 0.9 metres – down from the previous 1.0 metres. And some protrusions like electrical or gas meters might be allowed into this space.
But perhaps more importantly, the new regulations also allow a much longer travel path from a nearby fire hydrant to the laneway house. There are limitations, and it’s not a simple formula, but in general, this distance can now be as much as 135 metres.
This means that an awful lot of homes that were previously disqualified (for example row houses) can now qualify, if they are not too far away from where the lane joins the adjacent street.
This is great news, all around. It allows thousands of more properties to now qualify for laneway houses.
MORE information can be found HERE.