The City of Toronto is intensifying its efforts to address the housing crisis, with a significant focus on developing small housing units in residential areas. In an initiative aimed at homeowners, the city has made available free, pre-approved construction plans for building garden and laneway dwellings on personal properties. These detached secondary homes, which can be constructed in backyards or alongside public laneways, provide additional housing options without the need for extensive planning or hiring outside professionals.
Mayor Olivia Chow highlighted the benefits of this initiative, stating, “No need to hire an architect or a planner because these drawings and plans already comply with the Ontario building code. These plans can help homeowners save time and money. The city also can demonstrate how building more units and expanding a single-family home helps build a community and helps fix the housing crisis.” This move is part of a larger strategy that includes two additional initiatives: expanding online building permit applications for new units and an enhancement of the Professional Engineer Seal program.
Starting July 14, plans that have been stamped by licensed professional engineers will receive pre-approved status, allowing the city to expedite the review process for new construction projects. Mayor Chow emphasized the urgency of these measures, expressing frustration over the current housing pipeline. “We can spend a lot of time changing this zoning and that bylaw and whatever it might be, sure it’ll help a little bit but are people building? No, there are 330,000 units of housing already approved in the pipeline. It’s stuck, so we have to make it cheaper to build housing and that is what we’re doing here,” she remarked.
Despite the city’s commitment to increasing housing availability, local pro-housing advocate Stephanie Bertolo pointed out the limitations of these initiatives. She noted that while the policy change is necessary for allowing more units to be constructed, the overall impact may be limited. “In terms of building enough housing in the city to accommodate everyone who wants to live here at affordable prices, it’s just a small drop in the bucket,” Bertolo stated. This caution comes amid a backdrop of previously approved garden suites, of which only 114 have been built since they were approved in 2022, raising concerns about the efficiency of current housing policies.
Furthermore, Chow’s observations about the council's recent decision to limit multi-unit housing developments—only allowing sixplexes in nine wards rather than city-wide—underscore the complexity of the housing approval process. This decision effectively restricts development opportunities and could adversely affect Toronto’s eligibility for federal housing funding, creating additional challenges in the fight against the housing shortage.
Mayor Chow stressed the need for a more practical approach to housing development, stating, “I don’t believe a top-down way of doing things will mean that people are going to rush out and build housing. It hasn’t worked. This is practical: make it simpler, cheaper, faster for people to build.” The initiatives aimed at easing construction processes reflect a strategic pivot towards fostering an environment conducive to the expansion of housing options within the city, highlighting the ongoing efforts to alleviate the persistent housing crisis in Toronto.
