Toronto's Neighbourhoods

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Between 1961 and 1971 the fertility rate halved from just under 4 children per woman to under 2 children. For the last 40 years, the rate has remained low, stabilized between 1.75 and 1.5. Additionally, 77% of Toronto’s housing stock had been developed by 1986. Most of this land is occupied by detached houses built for more people than what currently inhabit them. Despite this, over the past 30 years most of Toronto’s neighbourhoods has added no or little housing stock to the existing supply. As a result, many are over housed, and families are excluded from entering most of Toronto’s neighbourhoods, resulting in: the depopulation of neighbourhoods across Toronto; under enrollment and closures of schools in 48% of Toronto’s neighbourhoods;
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However, much of this work has done little for most of our neighbourhoods. There has been little or no construction of these built forms within most neighbourhoods. This is in part because Toronto’s Official Plan strictly applies “stable” and “healthy” Neighbourhood policies which label the addition of housing units as a threat. The Official Plan and Zoning By-law however permit bungalows to be demolished and redeveloped into two storey single family dwellings. There are also no policies to prevent multiple-family houses from being converted into single family …show more content…
Apartments have the most capacity, whereas residential detached properties have the least. Traditionally, detached homes were designed to host single families. Properties of this type may include granny suites and secondary entrances into the basement; however, they were not intended to facilitate renting to non-family tenants.
In 1999, in response to low vacancy rates, City Council adopted a motion to lift the tenant ban by applying Official Plan and Zoning By-law amendments to permit tenantable second suites in single and semi-detached houses throughout the City (City of Toronto, 1999). Criticism of this motion by councilors and the public include the allegation that this permission would cause house prices to decline (Lewington, 1999). The 1999 decision to permit tenantable second suites in single and semi-detached houses was the first step towards improving access and the supply of housing options within residential neighbourhoods. Further work is required in this direction.
Zoning and