As province overhauls OMB, zoning bylaws need updating
Now that the province has increased intensification and density targets in the GTA, and plans to replace the Ontario Municipal Board with a local planning-appeal tribunal, it’s more important than ever that municipalities update their zoning bylaws.
Zoning bylaws designate land-use types in a community and set density permissions. While official plans set out a municipality’s general policies for future land use, zoning bylaws determine what types of buildings can be built, and control the size, height and location of new developments.
These bylaws are administered by municipalities and vary by neighbourhood.
Unfortunately many GTA municipalities are operating with badly outdated zoning bylaws that don’t support provincial intensification.
Despite this, our industry does its best to comply with provincial smart-growth policy by going through costly re-zoning applications.
Outdated zoning makes what is already a long approvals process even longer and contributes significantly to delays in bringing projects to market. This, in turn, means additional costs for new homebuyers.
After amalgamation in 1998, Toronto had more than 40 zoning bylaws, some dating back to the 1950s. As you can imagine, community needs have changed dramatically over the years and especially since the introduction of the Ontario government’s Growth Plan in 2006.
In 2013, a new harmonized zoning bylaw was passed by the city of Toronto, which merged the preamalgamation six cities’ existing bylaws into one. However the emphasis of the harmonization was on developing common terminology, structure and set of defined zoning terms that would apply across Toronto. The merged bylaw did little to update height and density permissions so that they would align with intensification requirements.
Ontario’s growth policies mandate intensification across the GTA. And that means more development needs to happen in existing urban growth areas, especially near transit stations and corridors. Yet the zoning bylaws for many of these areas have not been updated to enable higher density.
For instance, take the example of the area around Yonge St., north of Eglinton Ave.: much of this land is designated as an urban growth area, plus it is on a subway line. Yet the area is zoned mostly for low-density development. As per the Growth Plan, it should be zoned for higher density communities.
This disconnect also creates community opposition to intensification, which is a growing challenge in the GTA.
New development in existing communities has many local residents worried about the growing impact higher densities could have on the established neighbourhoods.
Now, more than ever municipalities need to update the zoning bylaws.
With increased intensification and the proposed reform of the OMB it will only get more challenging to build to policy and deliver the development that is needed to house our growing population. Bryan Tuckey is president and CEO of the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD) and is a land-use planner who has worked for municipal, regional and provincial governments. Find him at on Twitter @bildgta, facebook.com/bildgta and bildblogs.ca.