2025.PH23.6

Background

“[L]ow-rise housing forms, sometimes referred to as the “missing middle,” can range from garden suites to small-scale apartment buildings on major streets. All these housing types can be found in Toronto today and historically have been located within our traditional neighbourhoods, but more recently in our City’s history they have been limited in where they are allowed to be built. [...] Permitting additional opportunities for missing middle and mid-rise housing helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the efficient use of land and resources. Infill within the built-up area enables low carbon transportation choices, such as walking, cycling, and public transit. Housing built in Toronto also reduces sprawl and transportation driven greenhouse gas emissions regionally. It also enables the use of existing infrastructure, which avoids carbon intensive infrastructure built elsewhere.”

Source: City of Toronto

Item Description

This item simply seeks to “engage stakeholders in the architecture, building and planning sectors and develop a design-focussed procurement process to develop code-compliant designs meeting high thresholds of design, accessibility and climate resiliency for four-unit and six-unit homes, appropriate for neighbourhoods across Toronto, that the City would make accessible to the public; and [...] make pre-approved multiplex designs available to the public through the City’s website by the second quarter of 2026.”

Source: City of Toronto

Proposed by

Planning and Housing Committee