Councillor Mark Grimes- Councillor Mark Grimes
Q & A - Garden Suites
On January 25, 2022, the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association hosted the Allendale Residents Association from Barrie Ontario to present their experience with Garden Suites. A number of questions and comments were raised at the meeting. City Planning staff were in attendance but were not part of the panel of presenters. In order to respond to the questions and comments from the discussion, City Planning have provided the following Q&A that reflect the themes from discussion at the meeting.
For more information about the City Planning Division’s recommendations on Garden Suites, please visit www.Toronto.ca/GardenSuites
The City Planning Division’s report on Garden Suites can be found here
If you would like to speak with City Planning staff on this initiative please contact:
David Driedger Senior Planner, Community Planning Email: David.Driedger@toronto.ca
Allison Reid Program Manager, Urban Design Email: Allison.Reid@toronto.ca
1) How are trees protected on the property where a Garden Suite is proposed, as well as trees on Neighbouring properties? Can the City prohibit development on lots where trees will be impacted?
The City of Toronto has a tree protection By-law, which applies to all trees on private property with a diameter of 30cm at breast height. In contrast, the City of Barrie has a By-law to protect woodlots and does not protect individual trees on a property.
In practice, in cases where a Garden Suite is designed to meet the proposed By-law rules (i.e. as-of-right construction), but construction would necessitate the injury or removal of a tree, the General Manager of Parks, Forestry, and Recreation may refuse the tree permit, in accordance with Municipal Code Chapters 608, 658, and 813. The applicant may appeal the decision to the appropriate Community Council. This practice is unique to laneway suites and garden suites, representing an elevated level of oversight and protection of neighbourhood trees, when compared to any other type of low-rise construction in Neighbourhoods.
The proposed Garden Suites by-law also includes requirements for green space on a lot. It requires that a minimum of 50% of the total rear yard area must be soft landscaping (such as trees, grass, and gardens). For lots with a frontage of less than 6.0 metres, a minimum of 25% of the rear yard must be soft landscaping. These requirements are the same as the existing zoning by-law standards for soft landscaping in the rear yard of residential properties. In addition to providing amenity space that may serve the residents of a lot, soft landscaping in rear yards presents an important opportunity to provide the permeable space needed to retain storm water on site, and support tree and ecological functions.
City Planning Staff worked closely with the City’s Urban Forestry staff in the development of the Garden Suites standards.
2) Is there a maximum floor area requirement in Toronto’s proposed Garden Suite By-law?
A number of requirements are proposed to govern the overall size of a Garden Suite in Toronto.
City Planning is recommending that the footprint of a Garden Suite can occupy the lesser of:
- 40% of the area of the rear yard,
- 20% of the total lot area, or
- 60 square metres.
The permitted maximum Garden Suite footprint in Barrie is 75 square metres, which is 15 square metres larger than what is proposed for Toronto. The City currently allows detached garages to be built with a footprint of up to 60 square metres.
It is also recommended in the Garden Suites By-law that the interior floor area of a garden suite be less than the floor area of the main residential building on the lot. A maximum building height of 6 metres is recommended, and a series of angular planes, which on many lots will reduce the overall area of a potential 2nd storey.
Generally speaking, the requirements City Planning staff are recommending for Garden Suites will ensure smaller suites are located on smaller lots and lots with small rear yards. Larger lots and larger rear yards may accommodate larger suites, with greater side yard setbacks, up to a maximum size that still remains subordinate in scale to main house on a property.
For comparison, the average floor area of a laneway suite constructed since 2018 in Toronto is approximately 900 square feet. The City anticipates that Garden Suites will generally be smaller than the laneway suites that have been constructed to date. City’s Laneway Suites By-law, which does not require side yard setbacks or side yard angular planes, allows for slightly larger buildings than the proposed Garden Suites By-law, which does require side yard setbacks and side/rear angular planes.
3) Is there a minimum floor area requirement in Toronto’s proposed Garden Suite By-law?
No.
4) Has the City considered seriously scaling back the size of Garden suites and/or limiting units to one floor?
Garden Suites are proposed to provide an additional form of housing in Neighbourhoods to support range of household compositions, and people at a range of ages, abilities, and incomes. They can support extended family and downsizing as well. In determining the scale and form of garden suites, the City undertook lot studies, review of existing zoning by-law permissions, and massing analysis, to appropriately scale the garden suite and to mitigate privacy impacts. City Planning staff are recommending that the proposed rules and regulations for a garden suite are appropriate to balance the need to provide this type of housing option and appropriately limit impacts on trees, green space, and neighbouring properties.
5) Should the side yard setback for a Garden Suite be increase?
The proposed minimum side yard setback for a Garden Suite is equal to 10% of the width of the lot at the street frontage. The minimum side-yard is 0.6 metres while the maximum is 3.0 metres. For example, a 10 metre wide lot would require a minimum setback of 1.0 metres on each side of the garden suite, and a 20 metre wide lot would require a setback of 2.0 metres. Currently the zoning by-law requires most garages to be setback 0.0 metres from a property line, and sheds to be setback 0.3 metres.
6) Are basements being recommended for Garden Suites?
The Toronto City Planning Division is recommending that basements be permitted for Garden Suites. Foundation work in some form is expected for all Garden Suites as they are permanent buildings constructed on the lot. Based on observations from the Laneway Suite construction, it is anticipated that basements will be rarely constructed for Garden Suites. They are both challenging to build in a back yard and often prohibitively expensive.
7) Are Garden Suites intended to be Affordable Housing or Market Housing?
Garden Suites are a part of the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods initiative which is primarily focused on providing more market rental housing options, in a range of formats, within the City’s Neighbourhoods. This new rental housing stock will support residents with a much broader range of incomes and household compositions at various life stages than does the current housing stock within many of the City’s Neighborhoods.
Garden Suites are just one part of a broader housing strategy that includes initiatives such as Multi-Tenant Housing permissions, the Municipal Comprehensive Review, Inclusionary Zoning, the Short Term Rental By-law, Housing Now, Rapid Housing, and must also include intergovernmental investments in purpose built affordable housing in a variety of forms across the City.
The City is recommending a program to support the creation of more affordable Garden Suites. The City currently offers a forgivable loan of $50,000 for eligible property owners developing a laneway suite who wish to rent the suite at an affordable rate for a period of 15 years. City staff have recommended this program be extended to Garden Suites as well.
8) Are Garden Suites subject to Inclusionary Zoning?
Garden Suites are not subject to Inclusionary Zoning. More information about Inclusionary Zoning can be found here.
9) Will Garden Suites be targeted by property investors?
The Zoning By-law cannot distinguish between owners, tenants, or other relationships of occupants on a property.
While concerns about speculation have been raised in consultation on this initiative, we have not observed this to be common with other forms of missing middle housing, including Laneway Suites. We have however observed that the cost to build a detached accessory suite (such as a laneway or garden suite) is roughly the same as, or less than, the increase in property value that results after one is built. This does not create a supportive environment for buying and flipping properties. In the case of Laneway Suite construction we have observed primarily homeowners building suites and renting them out or using them to accommodate extended family. In the majority of cases, if someone purchases a property to build a suite and rent it out the result is the creation of new housing unit in the community.
10) How will applications for variances for larger garden suites be considered at the COA?
Pursuant to the Planning Act, the City cannot restrict an owner of land from applying to the CoA for minor variances. However, Community Planning staff triage all CoA applications, and provide a report to the CoA on applications we have concerns with. Once a matter is heard, the CoA panel is delegated the authority to refuse, defer, or approve a minor variance application.
11) Does Provincial Policy allow Garden Suites to be excluded from certain Neighbourhoods?
The Planning Act requires that all municipalities introduce rules to permit the use of additional residential units in a detached, semi-detached and rowhouse, and in a building or structure ancillary to those residential building types. Toronto's neighbourhoods are where these building types are located, excluding neighbourhoods is not consistent with the intent of the Planning Act.
12) Should the City require a “scoped site plan approval” for Garden Suites, similar to Barrie?
The function of Barrie’s site plan process is to ensure servicing, tree protection, and By-law compliance matters are addressed. The City of Toronto’s Tree Protection By-law and Building permit process secure all of these matters. The City of Toronto’s site plan control By-law exempts small residential construction for this reason. It is also important to note that Barrie’s scoped Site Plan application is processed at the staff level with no opportunity for public input. A scoped site plan process for Garden Suites in Toronto would duplicate many already existing processes that occur in reviewing a suite. This process would also create an unnecessary barrier to people wanting to build a Garden Suite.
13) Can the City require that Garden Suites be owner occupied?
No, the City cannot legally require that Garden Suites are only built on properties occupied by an owner.
14) Can Garden Suites be used for Short Term Rentals (AirBnB)?
Short-term rentals are only permitted in accordance with the City’s Short-Term Rental By-law. Short-term rentals in garden suites would only be permitted if the garden suite is exclusively and separately occupied as a principal residence by the person listing it on a short term rental site.
15) Should Garden Suites require a Building Permit? And should information be required to be posted so neighbours understand what is being built?
A Building Permit is required for Garden Suites. The Building Permit involves a review of the proposed garden suite to ensure it complies with the requirements of the zoning by-law and meets Ontario Building Code standards. Through the Building Permit process other city by-law requirements such as tree protection are raised.
To keep neighbours informed, City staff are recommending that Garden Suites be added to the infill housing public notice requirements in Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 519. This would require that building permit applicants post a public notice on the property with clear, accessible, and useful information about the project, including a rendering of the finished building.
16) Should the City’s Garden Suites By-law have a density or FSI requirement?
Garden suites are proposed to be excluded from the total permitted floor space index (FSI) for a lot and other density provisions. The intent of the Garden Suites Study is, in part, to allow for new residential housing, as-of-right, in an appropriate form, in Toronto’s neighbourhoods. In many cases, existing houses meet or exceed the density provisions in many residential zones across the City. Requiring garden suites to meet the current density requirements on a lot would create a significant process barrier for this type of housing, with many suites having to seek approval at the Committee of Adjustment, even in cases where a suite was designed to meet all other By-law requirements regarding the location, size, height, and setbacks.
The recommended Zoning By-law amendment follows a form-based zoning approach, establishing the size of a garden suite through a number of provisions so that the suite corresponds to the size of the lot on which it is proposed, limiting impacts on adjacent properties, and effectively setting an upward limit to the size of the unit, including in relation to the main dwelling. A density or FSI provision is of very limited use when the maximum building setbacks, width, depth, height, and maximum area relative the main house are all otherwise prescribed, as is the case with the proposed garden suite By-law. This approach is consistent with the approach to regulating laneway suites.
17) Have you considered legislation making it easier for homeowners to create a legal basement unit or an addition to a house?
The City of Toronto permits basement apartments in all residential zones in the City. Development charges are typically not required for basement apartments in most cases. The City currently has a very accommodative regulatory framework for creating basement apartments.
Additions to existing houses require a building permit and may require an application to the Committee of Adjustment should the addition not meet certain By-law requirements.
18) Can homeowners with large existing garages convert them into modest housing units?
The proposed Garden Suites By-law allows existing garage structures to convert to living space.