Ontario realtors want end to urban single-detached zones

November 8, 2021





The Ontario Real Estate Association (OREA) is calling on the province of Ontario to end exclusionary single-family zoning rules in high-demand urban areas.
Currently, it is illegal in Toronto neighborhoods to convert a single-family home into a townhome, duplex, triplex or fourplex without a zoning by-law change.
“These outdated zoning laws encourage NIMBY [not-in-my-backyard] forces to drive up costs of homes or drive away affordable homes in a neighbourhood entirely,” OREA stated.
“In too many Ontario cities, it defies common sense that you can take a bungalow and turn it into a monster four-storey home for one wealthy family, but you cannot build affordable townhomes for multiple families without red tape, runaround, and exorbitant costs,” said OREA CEO Tim Hudak. “Exclusionary zoning policies are at the heart of Ontario’s housing affordability crisis in high-growth areas and it’s time the province steps in to modernize these archaic laws.”
Specifically, OREA is encouraging the Province to implement as-of-right zoning in Ontario’s highest-demand urban neighbourhoods. This change would allow the legal development of more duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes, without, realtors say “unnecessary and lengthy case-by-case approvals.”