Regarding City of Toronto…

Regarding City of Toronto Act, proposed changes to rental replacement policies:

• Density bonusing where a low-rise or short mid-rise apartment building exists on site designated for mid-rise. Where the official plan permits a height of up to 20 storeys on a property, a proponent would be allowed additional height (and corresponding relaxing of any angular plane requirements) beyond what would be permitted in the official plan for each storey of existing rental housing replaced on-site, up to a maximum of 5 storeys. For instance, where the OP caps height at 16 storeys on a site with an existing 4-storey apartment building, the proponent would be allowed to build a 21-storey building.

• For a redevelopment with vacant, market-rate rental units, the proponent be permitted to contribute cash in lieu of replacement at a cost of $250,000/unit(?), indexed annually, to be used by the local public housing provider to construct new affordable rental housing.

• For a redevelopment with vacant, market-rate rental units, the proponent be permitted to replace market-rate units with affordable units at a 2:1 ratio on-site.

• Off-site replacement: For a redevelopment with any rental replacement units, the proponent be permitted to construct or secure replacement units within a 500 metre radius of the redevelopment site. The off-site units must be located in a separate structure from the redevelopment project.

Regarding proposed changes to the Planning Act:

• Within PMTSAs, min. parking requirements should be capped. Parking requirements are making high-density projects near future transit lines (e.g. the Hurontario LRT) unfeasible due to the cost of building several levels of excess parking above- or below-grade. This is disincentivizing new housing supply. For example, it less costly for builders to construct a 30-storey building with a smaller parking garage where a 50-storey building would otherwise be permitted by a municipality's official plan. Without changing these policies, there is a risk that hundreds or thousands of new housing units won't be built in PMTSAs.