Hi everyone my name is Michael Romero and I'm a Planner in City Planning.
In this presentation, I'll be walking you through the draft permissions related to
garden suites in the city of Toronto.
It will explain how the draft standards and permissions consider and respond to the variety in law patterns and
residential building types that exist throughout the city.
The presentation should take about 10 minutes in total.
At the end of the video, you were invited to share your feedback with the project
team through a quick, one question survey.
Your feedback is important to us and will help shape the future of garden suites in Toronto.
Before jumping in, let me provide a quick primer on garden suites.
Garden suites are sometimes referred to by other names, such as coach houses,
tiny homes and even granny flats.
They are all effectively the same idea
a detached accessory dwelling unit located in the rear yard of a detached house, semi-detached house,
townhouse or other low-rise dwelling.
It is generally smaller in scale than the main house,
and may function as a separate rental housing unit
or to accommodate different types of households
including intergenerational living.
Garden signifies the importance of maintaining and where possible enhancing the natural environment
and urban tree canopy.
That is supported by the private yards within low-rise neighbourhoods.
Suite promotes the gradual expansion of housing options within low-rise neighbourhoods.
By enabling livable, lower-scale accessory dwelling units on properties across the city.
The Garden + Suites project is one of several studies the City of Toronto
is currently leading to create more housing options in residential, low rise neighbourhoods.
You can learn more about this project by visiting our website at www.toronto.ca/ ehon
So, why do this now? Recent changes to the Ontario Planning Act
require the City to have policies and regulations that allow for an additional housing unit.
Separate from the main building on low rise, residential properties across the city.
This means that a detached house, semi-detached house or townhouse may have up to three units.
The main house, a secondary suite in the main house, and the third unit in a detached accessory structure.
Permissions are already in place in the City-wide zoning by-law to permit laneway suites in all low rise Residential zones.
A laneway suite is an additional housing unit.
Detached from the main building, which must be next to a public lane.
You can learn more about laneway suites in the City of Toronto by visiting our
website at www.toronto.ca/changinglanes
The draft garden suites permissions will allow for detached suites on properties
in low rise residential zones that are not next to a public lane.
To implement the draft permissions and to permit garden suites across the city.
Amendments to the Official Plan and Zoning By-law are required.
The Official Plan is the city's primary land use planning document.
The draft Official Plan Amendment would permit garden suites within all low rise neighbourhoods.
Citywide Zoning By-law 569-2013 applies to most of the City of Toronto.
And regulates land, use the size, heights and location of buildings and structures.
And other considerations, like parking.
The draft zoning by-law amendment would permit garden suites within the Residential zone categories.
In July 2020, City Council endorsed the Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods Work Plan report.
And directed City Planning to proceed with several priority initiatives in 2020 and 2021.
Including developing permissions for new types of accessory housing such as garden suites.
In May 2021 the garden suites project team
undertook a comprehensive consultation program, which included
three city-wide community consultation meetings,
meetings with resident associations,
industry professionals and members of city council
and an online survey, which generated over 4,000 responses.
Questions comments and general feedback have also been shared with the project team through phone calls and emails.
An overview of the public input received at consultation events and other correspondence to date
Is summarized in the Expanding Housing Options in Neighborhoods Garden Suites Proposals Report.
Available on the project website.
Your feedback today will be considered as part of a consultation on the draft standards.
Before the final staff report, Official Plan Amendment and Zoning by-law Amendment advances to the statutory meeting.
At Planning and Housing Committee in January 2022.
The following graphics will walk through the draft standards
and permissions as they would apply to an example lot that is 10 meters wide and 36 meters deep or
approximately 32 feet by 118 feet with an existing two-story detached dwelling.
The following overview of the standards and permissions,
a series of visuals will demonstrate how the draft standards and permissions will apply to
a variety of other property types such as corner lots, and through lots,
which are properties that face more than one street.
Fire access. In this image you see the main house
with an area for a garden suite in the rear yard.
The orange arrow demonstrates the path for emergency services
to the entrance of the garden suite.
The draft permissions would require a maximum 45 meter travel distance with a minimum width of 1 meter
and a vertical clearance of 2.1 meters from a public street to the entrance of a garden suite.
This will ensure rapid access to the suite in the case of an emergency.
In this slide, we will talk setbacks, which refers to the distance from a building wall to a lot line.
For example, a side yard setback refers to the distance between the nearest
building wall to a side lot line.
In this image, we return to the main house with area for a garden suite at the back.
In most cases the minimum side yard setback for a garden suite is 10 per cent of the lot width.
For example, on the 10 meter wide lot shown here, each side yard setback for the garden
suite shown in yellow is equal to 10 per cent of the lot width.
Or, in this case, a minimum of 1 meter
on small lots that are less than 6 meters wide the side yard setback is a minimum of 0.6 meters.
On large lots that are greater than 30 meters.
The side yard setback is a minimum of 3 meters.
On most lots, the rear yard setback is shown in blue here is a minimum of 1.5 meters.
On deep, lots greater than 45 meters.
The rear yard setback is a minimum of 50 per cent of the garden suite building height.
For example, on a deep lot.
A four meter tall garden suite would need to be set back a minimum of two meters from the rear lot line.
Windows would only be permitted for a garden suite with the side yard setback of 1.5 meters or greater.
These rear setbacks and side yard setbacks are intended to address privacy issues.
And to provide adequate space for soft landscaping, maintenance and repairs, drainage and grading.
This slide shares the permissions and standards around separation distances.
Which refers to the distance between the garden suite and main house.
The draft permissions would require a minimum separation distance of 5 meters
for garden suites with a height of 4 meters or less.
And the minimum separation distance of 7.5 meters for garden suites with a
height greater than 4 meters up to a maximum height of 6 meters.
The minimum 5 meter separation distance is shown here by the blue arrow.
The maximum building footprint is a maximum area that a garden suite can cover on a lot.
The draft permissions limit the footprint of a garden suite.
The light dotted lines on the ground in the backyard, illustrate the required setbacks shown in the previous slides.
The maximum footprint is the smaller of the following rules.
A maximum coverage of 20 per cent of the whole lots as shown in this image.
Where the boundary is shown in the black dashed line.
Or a maximum coverage of 40 per cent of the rear yard only.
Shown in this image where the rear yard is bounded by the purple line.
Or a maximum of 60 square meters.
In this example, the rules for maximum footprint
will result in a garden suite with a maximum size of 60 square meters.
While maintaining the separation distances and setbacks as shown in the lightly dotted lines.
Height refers to how tall a garden suite can be above the ground level in the backyard.
The draft permissions would permit a maximum height of four meters.
When the garden suite is at least five meters from the main house.
A maximum height of 6 meters would be permitted when the garden suite is at least 7.5 meters from the main house.
And angular planes are applied to the front side and rear of the garden suite.
This image shows the main house with a four meter tall garden suite in the rear yard.
For perspective, the image also shows the neighbour's rear yards, the current zoning permissions for
ancillary buildings, such as garages or garden sheds.
For garden suites that are taller than 4 meters, the additional height up to 6 meters is regulated by angular planes.
Angular planes are a design tool that can help limit the impact of buildings.
As the height of a structure increases, the building facade steps back from the property line,
reducing privacy and shadow impacts on adjacent properties.
A 45 degree angular plane is a generally accepted standard for gradual building height transition and helps maintain
good sunlight access on surrounding properties.
Particularly during the spring through to the fall
when plants and gardens are most sensitive to shadow impacts.
In this image, you will see the angular planes in red.
Which shape the additional two meters of heights that may be permitted on a garden suite
above the base height of four meters, if other standards are met.
The draft permissions would require that the following angular planes apply to the garden suites:
in the front a 45 degree, angular plane starting at a height of 4 meters
and a 7.5 meters from the rear main wall of the main house
indicated by the blue arrows.
At the rear a 45 degree angular plane starting at a height of 4 meters
from the required rear yard setback and at the side a 45 degree angular plane starting at a height of 4 meters
from the required side yard setback.
No angular plane is required where a lot line is adjacent to a street.
Garden suites are intended to play the dual role of providing additional forms of gentle density housing
while also respecting the critical importance of green open spaces
on the well-being of the natural environment and the city's residents.
Backyards are an important amenity space for the residents of the main dwelling and the garden suite.
And present an important opportunity to provide the permeable surfaces needed to retain stormwater on-site
and to support the city's mature tree canopy.
The draft permissions would require that a minimum of 50 per cent of a rear yard area be soft landscaping.
Like grass, gardens and so on.
For example rare yards with areas of 150 square meters
would require 75 square meters of soft landscaping.
The calculation of the required soft landscaping applies to the entire rear yard area
including the footprint covered by the garden suite.
The garden suite counts towards the part of the yard that is not soft landscaping.
In the image shown the soft landscaping requirement is shown in the separation distance
between the main house and the garden suite.
And within the side and rear setbacks.
Small lots with the frontage of less than 6 meters would follow the same rules.
But require a minimum of 25 per cent soft landscaping instead of 50 per cent.
This is consistent with what the by-law currently requires.
According to the garden suite survey conducted in the spring of 2021.
44 per cent of respondents thought that tree protection was an important matter to
address in potential policies and regulations for garden suites.
This has been an important consideration when drafting the permissions for garden suites.
This image shows an existing tree located in the backyard of the main house.
The footprint of the garden suite has been adjusted to accommodate the
existing mature tree.
The 50 per cent soft landscaping requirement ensures that the tree and mature vegetation has space to grow and thrive.
This image summarizes all the standards and permissions discussed.
The minimum separation distances the side and rear setbacks, the permitted
heights and footprint for the garden suites and the soft landscape area for the garden.
The next series of graphics will illustrate a garden suite on different types of lots.
Each graphic identifies how the same set of rules respond to the lot conditions
and result in different sizes and shapes of garden suites.
The image illustrates a garden suite on a small lot with a width of 6 meters and
a depth of 36 meters with a two-story main house.
The lot is bounded by the dashed black line.
Notable differences include a smaller garden suite footprints of 43 square meters
a height of up to 4 meters with a 5 meter separation distance to the main house and narrower side yard setbacks of 0.6 meters
between the garden suite and side lot line.
Soft landscaping requirements also stay the same at 50 percent of the backyard area.
This image illustrates a garden suite on a large lot with a width of 21 meters
and a depth of 48 meters With a two-story main house.
Notable differences include a larger garden suite footprint of 60 square meters,
larger side and rear yard setbacks of at least 3 meters
between the garden suite and the side yard and rear yard lot lines.
The minimum separation distance between the main house and the garden suite is
more than the minimum 7.5 meters required
which is used to meet and exceed the minimum 50 percent rear yard soft landscaping as shown in this image.
This image shows a garden suite on a corner lot with the width of 15 meters
and a depth of 36 meters with a two story main house.
Notable differences include no angular plane where the garden suite abuts the street.
And the minimum 1.5 meter side yard setbacks to the street
which allows additional space for trees and soft landscaping.
This image shows a garden suite on a lot with a width of 14 meters and a depth of
44 meters with a two-story main house.
Notable differences include a rear yard setback to the street up to six meters if parking is provided or 1.5 meters to
3 meters where no parking is provided.
And no angular plane where the garden suite abuts the street.
The minimum separation distance between the main house and the garden suite is more than the minimum
required of 7.5 meters, which is used to meet and exceed the minimum 50 per cent rear yard
soft landscaping requirement, as shown in the image.
This image shows numerous garden suites that can be built in a neighbourhood incrementally over time.
The draft permissions enable Toronto, the city of neighbourhoods to accommodate the needs
of our growing city in an environmentally sustainable, transit oriented, and inclusive way.
The purpose of the Garden + Suites project is to provide more housing
options but it is not expected that every lot will be able to accommodate a garden suite.
Also it is not expected that a garden suite will be built on every lot where they are permitted.
Thank you for your interest in the Garden + Suites project.
A pdf version of this presentation, the draft Official Plan Amendment and Zoning By-law Amendment
are now posted to our public website at www.toronto.ca/gardensuites
You will also find a quick one question survey where you can share your thoughts
and feedback on the draft permissions for garden suites.
The commenting period ends on November 30th, 2021.
If you have any questions please email the project team at EHON@Toronto.ca
Sign up for project updates on garden suites and other ways to expand housing
options in Toronto at www.toronto.ca/EHON