Starting June 24, Toronto will be holding consultations to review its policies for Avenues, mid-rise and mixed-use areas. The proposal for the Avenues Policy Review improves upon the current Avenues Policies in the Official Plan, but there is room for improvement. This is the first major update to the Avenues policies in the Official Plan in more than 20 years, and this opportunity shouldn’t go to waste.
Here are some of the things worth thinking about when you give feedback at one of the public consultations.
Summary
- The existing Avenues policies have failed to produce the growth envisioned in the Official Plan.
- The new proposed Avenues policies will be an improvement, providing City Planning gets the details right. MNTO has concerns around the proposed Local Area Reviews and Avenues Typologies.
- You can support good policies for the Avenues by sharing your voice at upcoming Community Consultations.
Why Do Avenues Matter?
Avenues are one of the three areas identified in the Official Plan where residential growth is encouraged, along with Centres and Downtown. They are the major “main streets” outside of the downtown core such as St. Clair or Kingston Road that will be familiar to most people. Avenues are the anchors for many communities where millions of people shop, eat, and spend time with friends and loved ones.
The vision for Avenues, along with the 7 Avenues policies, are outlined in Chapter 2 of the Official Plan, and were written in 2002. The vision and policies are meant to guide City Planning staff on what changes should and shouldn’t be allowed when evaluating re-zoning applications within the Avenues area.
What’s Wrong with the Current Avenues Policies?
In short, the existing Avenues policies have been a disappointment. For the five and a half year period from January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2023 only 142 projects were built along the Avenues, a rate of 28 per year. During that time, about half as many residential units were added along Avenues compared to Downtown. Rather than serving as key growth areas which could provide desperately needed homes throughout Toronto, the potential of Avenues has been sidelined.
There are four main reasons the Avenues have had disappointing growth:
- The Official Plan policies require that an Avenue Study be performed prior to development. Over the course of the 22 years in which the Avenues policies have existed, City Planning performed 30 studies covering only 45% of the Avenues. Many of these studies were themselves watered down to limit growth. For example, the Queen Street West Planning Study, which took 7 years to complete, set height limits to 1 or 2 stories above the existing built form, and required additional stepbacks above 3 stories, making growth unlikely. For the 55% of Avenues without Avenues Studies, rezoning can proceed only if the developer performs an Avenue Segment Review, adding additional time and cost.
- The Official Plan policies state that segments of Avenues which are designated as Neighbourhoods must reinforce the existing physical character of the Neighbourhood. Functionally, this eliminates any possible growth from these portions of Avenues, shrinking the already small area where growth is encouraged.
- The Official Plan Avenues policies state that Avenues Studies should be implemented through as-of-right zoning. In practice there has typically been significant delay, measured in years, between the completion of an Avenue Study and updated zoning.
- The areas designated as Avenues are small, and there has been no process to add new Avenues to plan for future growth.
What is the City Proposing to Fix Avenues?
The Avenues Policy Review proposals report suggests removing the requirement for Avenues Studies and Avenue Segment Reviews before re-zoning Avenues. Instead, Avenues policies would be implemented through as-of-right zoning using 3 new typologies shown in the table below to guide the Official Plan land use designations applied to each lot. An optional Local Area Review may also be undertaken where staff deem it necessary.
| Main street Avenue corridors | Residential Avenue corridors | Mixed use Avenue corridors | |
| Potential primary land use designation | Mixed Use Areas | Apartment Neighbourhoods | Mixed Use Areas |
| Potential Built Form | Mid-Rise | Mid-Rise | Mid-Rise & Tall |
| Mix of Uses | A range of non-residential uses are strongly encouraged at-grade, with preference for retail and service uses. Unit size and scale should vary. | Small-scale retail and service uses are permitted and encouraged at-grade. | Non-residential uses or active uses are required on the ground floors, which should vary widely in size. Larger format commercial and institutional uses are encouraged. |
| Commercial replacement | Yes | No | Yes |
The report also suggests allowing lot consolidation in Neighbourhoods next to an Avenue to allow for the construction of midrise buildings in areas with shallow lots, and includes language facilitating areas of transition between Avenues and adjacent Neighbourhoods.
This report recommends removing the absolute priority of Neighbourhoods policies along Avenues when re-zoning, and states that Neighbhourhood-designated land along Avenues will be considered for conversion to Mixed Use or Apartment Neighbourhoods.
Finally, the report outlines criteria that would be used to identify new Avenues for the final report, which would increase the area where growth and midrise buildings are encouraged.
Will that Fix Avenues?
Implementing the City’s recommended changes would be a significant improvement over the current Avenues Policies. The process of lengthy studies or expensive spot re-zonings would be replaced with as-of-right zoning along the Avenues. Lot consolidation would be allowed on shallow lots, making development along key Avenues, such as Sheppard Avenue around the subway, much more likely. This should drastically reduce the number of re-zoning applications required for midrise buildings and in general decrease the time and uncertainty, and therefore the cost, required to build along Avenues.
However, the details are always crucial for housing policies. And there are two pieces of the Proposals Report which could undermine these reforms.
The first is the inclusion of a discretionary Local Area Review. The Proposals Report does not say how these would be triggered, whether as part of re-zoning applications (which should be minimized), or through Site Plan Control Applications, which will still be required. It also does not say who will perform the study, City Planning, or the developer. Lastly, it does not clarify whether building would be allowed prior to completion of the study.
If the Avenues Studies are replaced by a discretionary review which a developer could be required to complete for every project before being granted a building permit, then it would be worse than the current process. We know that discretionary planning processes often transform into requirements, and if the review is performed by the developer and not City Planning, there is no incentive for City Planning to actually be discretionary with the use of these reviews.
The second item of concern is the proposed Avenues typologies. These typologies would be used to assign different land use policies (Apartment Neighbourhoods or Mixed Use) to different parts of the Avenues. This may become a practical impediment to building, as changing from the Apartment Neighbourhood designation to Mixed Use would require an Official Plan Amendment, and likely a re-zoning application as well.
The typologies add a layer of unnecessary complexity to the Avenues Policies. We believe that simplicity and flexibility in housing policy is a virtue. Mixed Use Areas allow more flexibility than Apartment Neighbourhoods. Designating all Avenues as Mixed Use Areas would allow for these main streets to evolve and grow as needed by their communities. If instead an expensive review process is required before this can happen, it likely won’t happen at all.
How can you help?
The City of Toronto will be hosting Community Consultations on the Avenues Policy Review from June 24 to July 9. You can attend and push for clear, consistent, and flexible policies for Avenues. We will have more to say when the final draft comes to the Planning and Housing Committee later this year.
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June 24, 2024, 10:30 am - 12 pm (Scarborough)
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June 24, 2024, 6 - 7:30 pm (Etobicoke York)
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June 25, 2024, 10:30 am - 12 pm (Toronto East York)
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June 25, 2024, 6 - 7:30 pm (North York)
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July 3, 2024, 10:30 am - 12 pm (Etobicoke York)
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July 3, 2024, 6 - 7:30 pm (Scarborough)
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July 4, 2024, 10:30 am - 12 pm (North York)
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July 4, 2024, 6 - 7:30 pm (Toronto East York)
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July 8, 2024, 10:30 am - 12 pm (City-Wide)
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July 9, 2024, 6 - 7:30 pm (City-Wide)