What Toronto’s New Garden Suite Bylaws Mean for Your Backyard Oasis
The City of Toronto is on the verge of enacting significant amendments to the garden suite bylaw at this month’s Planning and Housing Committee. This will eventually go on to the August City Council meeting to be approved. Some of the changes are good, but some might be bad. Here is a look at what is being proposed…
1. More Restrictive Setbacks for Corner Lots
Currently, corner lots are treated equally to other circumstances. This can result in garden suites being built closer to the street than other homes on adjacent properties. The proposed amendments introduce an averaging rule to ensure more consistent setbacks with neighboring properties.
- Corner Lot Clarity: If you’re on a corner lot and an adjacent residential building fronts the street that abuts your side lot line, your garden suite’s minimum side yard setback will be the average of that adjacent home’s front yard setback and your principal residential building’s minimum required side yard setback, but never less than 1.5 meters. This is an increase over the current setback requirements, possibly a substantial one depending on your circumstance.
- Parking Considerations: If your garden suite on a corner lot includes a parking space with street access from the side lot line, the minimum side yard setback will be the greater of 6.0 meters or the averaged setback mentioned above. This will disqualify the majority of homeowners from including garages in their garden suites.
2. More Restrictive Setbacks for 2nd Floor Windows
If you are planning on having 2nd floor windows facing your rear lot line, larger setbacks will be required. The goal for this is to increase privacy and prevent overlook on adjacent back yards. We have never found this to be a problem, and we are not sure how an additional 5’ of separation will somehow prevent privacy or overlook. This seems like a provision that will prompt more trips to the Committee of Adjustment, and/or more dishonesty from people who will add windows after the permit is closed, or obfuscate the approvals process in other ways.
- 2nd Storey Rear Windows: A new requirement mandates an additional 1.5-meter setback for any rear main wall with a window located 4.0 meters or higher above average grade.
3. Relaxed Separation Distances
Good news for those looking to maximize their backyard space! The previous 5.0-meter separation distance between a 1-storey garden suite and the main house is being reduced.
- Closer for One-Storey Suites: If your garden suite is a single storey with a maximum height of 4.0 meters, the minimum separation distance from the main wall of your residential building will now be 4.0 meters. This measurement will be taken from main wall to main wall.
- Two-Storey Suites: For two-storey garden suites, the existing 7.5 meter separation distance will continue to apply.
4. Angular Planes Are Back!
Apparently the Planning Act amendment that eliminated angular planes can be overcome by renaming the convention “main walls with sloped roofs”. While we find the angular plane drama ridiculous (from both the city and the province), we are supportive of the new convention in concept, but we hate that it is not flexible. Unless you can create a very large side yard setback, there is no escaping it, unlike the former angular plane requirement that allowed you to minimize the impact as the setback increased progressively. Say goodbye to most of the useable space on your 2nd floor.
- Side Main Wall Height: Side walls require a 3:5 slope starting at 4m above grade. This does not apply to front or rear walls, nor to walls abutting a street. It can be eliminated if the wall is set back an additional 1.5m from the required side yard setback (which is massive).
5. Height Regulations Updated for More Flexibility
Improvements are being made to building height to align with the laneway suite bylaw. This allows adequate ceiling heights on sites with uneven topography, and simplifies standards between similar typologies.
- Increased Height for Setback Suites: If your garden suite is located at least 7.5 meters from your main residential building, the permitted maximum height will increase to 6.3 meters.
6. More Restrictive Floor Area Requirements
To ensure garden suites remain subordinate to the principal building, new methodology for measuring gross floor area is being introduced. We find this requirement does nothing to properly control the sensitivity of development, and punishes homeowners who have small main houses on their lot. It is unlikely to affect many projects, but it is a shame nonetheless. We would have preferred eliminating this requirement entirely, as there are other controls on building size including maximum floor areas regardless of the size of your main home.
- Floor Area Comparison: The calculation for the garden suite’s gross floor area will also now align with the principal residential building’s deductions, with the exception of any area within the garden suite used for parking.
7. Lot Coverage Improvements
The previous 40% rear yard coverage limit for garden suites is being removed, as it was redundant. Overall coverage requirements were updated to reflect a recent Planning Act amendment.
- New Lot Coverage Option: You’ll now have the option for the area of your lot covered by all buildings and structures (including the garden suite) to not exceed 45 percent, or limit just the garden suite to 20% of the lot area.
These forthcoming changes are a mixed bag. Some are good. Some are necessary. Some are bad. In the majority of cases, there will be no impact except that second storeys have angular planes again and will have to be smaller.
While these changes are still going through the adoption process by City Council. If you are considering a garden suite project, there may still be time to submit a permit application with no angular planes. Especially if you use our pre-designed options, which have extremely fast timelines for approvals.
Stay tuned for the official enactment updates. In the meantime, if you are considering a back yard ADU project, request one of our free property assessments here.