Toronto Bylaw Changes Could Permit Businesses to Open in Areas Currently Zoned for Residential Use

Sep 2,2022 1 Comment By The Lilly Commercial Team

Toronto city council is adopting new amendments that will open the door to retail and service outlets flourishing in areas previously zoned residential.

A July 21 press release announced the acceptance of key motions that Michael Noble, project manager, City Planning with the City, said in an email would allow Toronto residents to more easily access goods, services and jobs close to home, by permitting businesses like barbershops to open in residential neighbourhoods.

Currently, according to Noble, the most notable approval from city council’s July meeting is the agreement to move forward with zoning bylaw changes that would allow barbers, hairdressers, beauticians, dressmakers, seamstresses, tailors, and health/medical offices in residential zones. While already approved, there is a 30-day period, he said, where the changes can be appealed. If by Aug. 22 there is no appeal, the amendments will go into effect.

Per the press release, further work, including a city-wide zoning bylaw that expands permissions for local neighbourhood retail and service uses is anticipated to be considered by Council in 2023.

“Zoning is going through a revolution right now across North America and we’re seeing a lot of really problematic zoning bylaws completely upended,” Jennifer Keesmaat, co-founder, Markee Developments, and former chief planner of the City of Toronto, said. “If you look at what we’re trying to do from a city-building perspective, it’s a good thing people can walk to a café in the area … it’s good for walking because less cars and it’s good for building a social fabric.”

“The opportunity [here] is to enable these types of places right in our neighbourhoods, street sides and corners.”

Zhixi Zhuang, program director at the School of Urban & Regional Planning at the recently renamed Toronto Metropolitan University, agreed.

“We talk about complete communities … if you want to improve the completeness of community life, we have to provide that kind of land use, not to separate them in a silo but to have them all mixed and allow people to do what they enjoy, get food, get services, meet other people,” she said.

James DiPaolo, associate at Urban Strategies Inc., while positive on the direction the City is moving, was curious to see how many people actually open new businesses in neighbourhoods.

He pointed toward larger forces like the rise of car ownership, decreased population density in many localities, and the rise of online shopping as factors that may impact how well these local shops do.

A Scarborough Bluffs neighbourhood resident, D. McCourt, who lives on Quentin Avenue, said that while she liked the economic boon these types of changes could provide, she was a bit unsure about having her quiet life be disrupted, having already grown accustomed to the traffic she gets as a result of living near the beach.

DiPaolo said there needs to be space for people in the community to have a say in what happens in their neighbourhoods and added businesses should be “compatible” in attributes like esthetic sense, physical scale and parking.

Noble wrote that consultations would define things like use, size and location to minimize adverse local impacts.

“As an example of appropriate locations, some options being explored include permitting establishments on TTC routes and marked bicycle routes,” he said.

“We can’t really impose a plan on communities who are the actual users of those spaces,” Dr. Zhuang said. “We have to look at whether we’ve consulted communities meaningfully … all the neighbourhoods are different, are unique, they have their own characteristics, community dynamics, histories.”

Source The Star. Click here to read a full story

Comments

gate io | Feb 27,2023
Reply

For my thesis, I consulted a lot of information, read your article made me feel a lot, benefited me a lot from it, thank you for your help. Thanks!

FOR SUBLEASE – Industrial Space – Ajax

Available area: 1,810 Sq Ft Lease rate: $15.50 Sq Ft Net + $5.65/2023/T.M.I. Rare Small Bay Industri ...

FOR LEASE – Office Spaces – Scarborough

Available units: #218 – 1,248 SF – $11.00 psf + $19.01 TMI psf #221 – 777 SF ̵ ...

FOR LEASE – Retail Space – Toronto

Available area: 595 SF Lease rate: $1,800.00 Net Lease Located in Toronto’s upscale Leaside ne ...

BUSINESS FOR SALE – Sports Equipment Shop – Peterborough

Available area: 783 Sq Ft Asking Price: $300,000.00 An exclusive business opportunity awaits in Pete ...

FOR LEASE – Office Space – Toronto

Available area: 1,124 SF Lease rate: $17.00 Net Lease Perfectly located near the 401 with easy trans ...

FOR LEASE – Office Space – Toronto

Available area: 755 SF Lease rate: $1,800 Gross Lease CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE Prime Scar ...

FOR LEASE – Office Space – Toronto

Available area: 638 SF Lease rate: $1,700 Gross Lease CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE BROCHURE Prime Sc ...

FOR LEASE – Office Space – Toronto

Lease price: $23.50 Sq Ft Net + $17.68/2023/T.M.I. Available area: 3,901 Sq Ft 1,820 Sq Ft Elevate y ...

Locations

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd., Brokerage
685 Sheppard Avenue East Suite 401, Toronto

Toronto

Riverdale Office

RE/MAX Hallmark Realty Ltd.

630 Danforth Ave
Toronto, ON M4K 1R3

Office: (416) 462-1888
Fax: (416) 462-3135