Fix to housing crunch may be in the backyard
Toronto to consider ‘garden suites’ as way to boost home supply
Toronto wants to add garden suites to its expanding tool kit of options for boosting the supply of homes in established neighbourhoods that are rich in amenities such as schools and transit but don’t have much in the way of affordable or rental housing.
A staff report before the city’s planning and housing committee on Tuesday recommends that Toronto begin public consultations early in the new year to develop guidelines for garden suites just as it has for laneway houses and secondary suites.
Garden suites — also referred to as coach houses, granny flats and tiny homes — are already common in some U.S. cities and other Ontario municipalities, said Toronto chief planner Gregg Lintern.
“This is another way of taking the price of land out of the housing equation,” he said.
Garden suites differ from Toronto’s laneway houses in as far they can be built on residential lots that don’t have back alleys.
Like laneway homes, they are self-contained units separate from the house, located at the end of the driveway or in the backyard, he said. The suite would be tethered to the main house for utilities and plumbing, like a basement apartment.
In some cases, garages could be converted to garden suites if they complied with the building code and the zoning bylaw that prescribes how high the units can be built and how far from the lot line, said Lintern.
Garden suites are the latest entry in the city’s Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods program designed to add new housing formats to areas that have relatively few rentals and are mostly limited to single-family homes.
It won’t solve the city’s housing challenges, but it offers more opportunities and more choice, and the supply will accumulate with time, he said.
Toronto has issued 119 building permits for laneway suites since it expanded the bylaw across the city in August 2019. Another 42 permits are under review, but there are 372 preliminary zoning review applications, the first step in the building process. Only seven permits had been completed by the end of November, according to the city.
Seventy per cent of Toronto’s laneways are in the old City of Toronto and East York.
But suburban lots might offer the size and width needed for garden suites, said private planner Sean Galbraith, an advocate for opening up Toronto’s singlefamily neighbourhoods.
They have more potential for boosting the housing supply simply because there are more lots without lanes than with them, he said in a letter to the housing committee.
“Garden suites will find potential homes clear across the city. If we let them. And they will do so in ways that do not fundamentally alter the character of their neighbourhoods. The evolution will be gradual, and generational, and beneficial in ways that we can’t yet predict (and many that we can),” wrote Galbraith.
He expects there will be some opposition to the idea but, once they get used to it, more homeowners will want garden suites to house family members or for rental income.
“It is gentle density,” he said. “It is a kind of invisible housing. You’re not really changing the streetscape much. You might not even know there’s one back there if you’re driving down the street,” he said.
Being able to turn a detached rear garage into a studio or onebedroom apartment, “That seems like a better use than a place to park a car,” he said.
City councillor and Deputy Mayor Ana Bailao says garden suites will add rental homes to areas that don’t have many and offer another solution to multigenerational housing.
“People are living longer, the sandwich generation is really struggling. They have their 25year-old at home and they have their senior parents to take care of,” said Bailao.
She acknowledged that the units aren’t cheap to build: likely at least $350,000, but that’s still less than a starter condo or any other type of home ownership in Toronto.
Bailao also stressed that the incursion of garden suites, like laneway homes, will be gradual.
“We know over 30,000 lots that could have laneway housing. We’ve had just over 100 applications. It’s coming. It’s starting to trickle in,” she said.
“Is it going to solve the affordability challenge of Toronto? No. But I think this is a viable option for many families and the city needs to look at it,” said Bailao, who expects staff will recommend specifics of a bylaw by spring.
“The sandwich generation is really struggling. They have their 25-year-old at home and they have their senior parents to take care of.” DEPUTY MAYOR ANA BAILAO