The City of Toronto is hoping that proposed changes to zoning bylaws will make it easier and more appealing to open small businesses in and around residential neighbourhoods that might not have easy access to basic shops and services they need at convenient locations.
Areas designated as neighbourhoods occupy approximately 35 per cent of the city’s land. The City began exploring zoning changes back in the fall of 2021, noting that retail and service establishments in neighbourhoods had declined by 34 per cent between 1989 and 2019.
The changes would allow businesses of up to 1600 square feet to operate on major streets that are zoned as residential. Inside neighbourhoods, they would have to be up to 1200 square feet. They would also allow people to run specific types of businesses from their homes, apartments, garages or sheds, where they can see customers as well as hire up to two employees.
“Council has approved a lot of changes over the last few years to make it easier to build housing — so that’s duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes. On the major streets it’s townhouses and up to six storey apartment buildings and in other parts of the city it’s more larger development that’s outside the neighbourhoods,” explained Michael Noble, manager of strategic initiatives in city planning for the City of Toronto.
“So it’s important, as those new buildings and new people are moving into the neighbourhood, to have the services that they need and for those services to be walking distance for people.”
Along with accessibility and walkability, the City says the changes will also support the way in which neighbourhoods are growing and changing. With more people working or running businesses from home for example, there is more need for local amenities to be close by.
In addition, there’s an eye toward encouraging the growth of small, local businesses that will contribute to the economy as well as the vitality of the neighbourhood.
A final report about the bylaw changes was considered by City Council last December, with a number of residents’ associations writing letters to weigh in.
The 100 Vaughan Road Tenants Association wrote in with enthusiastic support.
“We are really excited about it. We think it’s an opportunity for new, local businesses to come up to make our neighborhoods more vital, to have so much more access to different businesses and shops, and it’s just a really exciting idea,” co-chair Erin Taylor told CityNews.
“I think that for many of us, the businesses make our community. Especially for those of us who don’t have houses or backyards, they’re really good places for meeting people and seeing one another in our community environment. So I think so much of what makes this city vital is our businesses and we would love to see more of that.”
She added the only real concern the tenants association has is ensuring the businesses that move in are in fact small and local.
“We would love to see that these businesses are from our local community and prioritizing our local community and what our community needs. So we’d love to see the sort of mom and pop shops that make our community so great,” she said.
However, the Northcliffe Village Residents Association says there are other issues at play for them.
“The safety of our residents is paramount — as a chairperson that’s what I’m concerned about,” says Duarte Esteireiro.
“It would be very convenient to have walkable places that our residents can visit [like] retail stores. The problem becomes the level of activity that happens — are we going to have increased car traffic or EV traffic?”
Noble says the City will not require such businesses in neighbourhoods to provide parking, with the hope that they will not attract people and their vehicles from other parts of the city — although there’s no real way to prevent that from happening.
Esteireiro says his association is also concerned about delivery workers on e-bikes and other large vehicles making and picking up deliveries to and from the businesses that might move in. He points out that the neighbourhood is home to five schools within 400 metres and they want to City to take that into account.
Along with these safety concerns, he added that the changes aren’t particularly relevant for his neighbourhood.
“Most of the residents here have access to the major streets that have retail and other stores. We’re a midtown neighbourhood with major streets within two, three blocks. I could see it if it’s like a more suburban neighbourhood [and they want to] get more retail space — I see it as more logical. It doesn’t appear to be necessary in Davenport,” he said.
“I also find it a little upsetting or offensive a little bit because we are in a housing crisis right now and we’re going to be taking away housing from this neighborhood to put in commercial retail space?”
In their letter to council, the Northcliffe Village Residents Association also raised concerns about the types of businesses that might open inside neighbourhoods, specifically restaurants or cafes with seating that might acquire a liquor licence, which is under provincial purview.
“Convenience stores are already allowed to sell beer and wine. Once seating is allowed — either inside or on a patio — patrons may consume on-site, effectively turning the business into a bar,” read the letter.
In response to these concerns, Noble says they’re considering specific restrictions on such businesses inside neighbourhoods.
“We’ve discussed only allowing takeout so that people wouldn’t be able to sit. So [if it is alcohol] you would take your bottle and go home as opposed to being able to sit in the restaurant or in the cafe,” he said.
This and other discussions about the zoning changes are currently being had with Torontonians through a multi-modal process because City Council referred the December report back to city staff for further consultation with the public and residents’ associations.
Two city-wide virtual meetings were held in June and an online survey is being conducted until September 30.
“We’re also going to every ward in the city and doing pop-up events. So we’ll go to a farmer’s market, a park, sometimes a cafe, and we will put up posters and we’ll chat with people about the project, get their input,” said Noble.
These in-person consultations began in July and are scheduled until August 28:
- August 16: Ward 12, Toronto-St.Paul’s: The Stop Farmers Market, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- August 19: Ward 16, Don Valley East: Aga Khan Park Movie Night, 7 to 9 p.m.
- August 20: Ward 15, Don Valley West: Mount Pleasant Village BIA Movie Night, 7:15 to 9:15 p.m.
- August 23: Ward 22, Scarborough-Agincourt: Agincourt Mall, 1 to 3 p.m.
- August 26: Ward 14, Toronto-Danforth: Queen/Saulter Branch Library from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
- August 28: Ward 9, Davenport: Dufferin Grove Park Farmers Market, 3 to 7 p.m.
“We plan to have a staff report back to City Council and the planning and housing committee at the end of October. That will have an updated bylaw based on what we hear from the public,” explained Noble.
Depending on how long it takes for the bylaw to go through all the approval, amendment and appeals processes at City Hall, they’re looking at implementing the zoning changes in early 2026.
