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Toronto needs more housing. Are garden suites a potential solution?
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The City of Toronto is hoping new measures to cut design costs and speed up permit approval times for laneway and garden suites may encourage homeowners to build more, but some advocates and experts say they're skeptical the structures could be a viable solution to the city's housing crunch.
Mayor Olivia Chow announced on Friday that the city will provide free design plans for laneway and garden suites to cut costs and speed up permit approval times, in its latest bid to boost construction of new housing.
The pre-approved plans are compliant with the Ontario Building Code and eliminate the need to hire an architect, she said.
"It's simple: Toronto is growing and we must lower the cost of building homes and make it easier, and approve them faster," Chow said at a news conference Friday.
But a limited number of properties in the city have backyards large enough to build these suites, said Stephanie Bertolo, board member of More Neighbours Toronto, a housing advocacy organization.
"Anything that helps reduce the cost of development and gets things built faster is a win," Bertolo said.
"Unfortunately I think that laneway housing and garden suites aren't going to be a big part of the solution to the housing affordability crisis."
Bertolo said a better solution would be building more small apartment buildings or sixplexes to increase housing density across the city.
The city first passed an as-of-right zoning bylaw for laneway suites in 2018, and for garden suites in 2022. But only 166 laneway suites and 114 garden suites have been completed since these bylaws were passed, Chow said on Friday.
Bertolo said these numbers are a "drop in the bucket" compared to the housing needs across Toronto.
WATCH | Laneway, garden suite designs among new city housing measures announced Friday:
Toronto speeding up building permit approvals
2 days ago
Duration 1:33
With zoning changes alone not prompting enough new construction, Toronto is rolling out a series of measures to boost housing.
Company seeing demand from multigenerational families
The city defines a laneway suite as a self-contained residential unit located on the same lot as a detached house, semi-detached house, townhouse or other low-rise house. It is typically located in the backyard next to a public laneway.
A garden suite is similarly a self-contained living accommodation usually built in a backyard, but is not on a public lane.
Garden and laneway suites typically range between 500 to 600 square feet, said Sarah Cipkar, founder and CEO of Resimate, a company that helps homeowners build in their backyard in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area and the Niagara region.
Cipkar said her company is seeing demand from multigenerational families who want to build suites for aging parents or young adults who are struggling to enter the housing market.
"It creates all these unique opportunities for families to be closer together," she said.
Projects can cost between $200,000 to $350,000, she said.
Cipkar said she would like the city make the free suite designs available to manufacturers, who can then build them off site.
"Part of the issue with the pre-approved design catalogue is that they're not field-tested," she said. "Homeowners can't touch and feel them. They can just see them and they're like, 'maybe that's a good unit? I can't really tell."
Suites likely to be built in wealthier areas: professor
Susannah Bunce, an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of Toronto, said the intention behind the city's free designs are good as they provide a "guidebook" for homeowners and can streamline the approval process.
But these suites are likely to be concentrated in wealthier neighbourhoods in Toronto that have wider and larger lots, rather than the downtown core, where more affordable housing is needed, she said.
And without city programs in place to help out homeowners with expenses, such as a rebate or a forgivable loan program, she said these suites may not be rented out at affordable rates.
"With the hidden costs that come with garden suite construction, then there is an incentive for homeowners to try and recoup the costs that they have put up front by renting out a unit at a higher rate," Bunce said.
"It does then cut out a lot of people who are suffering from the affordable housing crisis in Toronto."
Cipkar said St. Catherines is an example of a municipality that has successfully encouraged these backyard suites. She said the municipality has financial incentives to homeowners and also provides timelines for stages such as when homeowners can expect to receive a permit using pre-approved designs.
The new measures come after city council voted last month to allow sixplexes in nine wards, with an option for the remaining 16 wards to opt-in at a later date. , but some councillors vehemently objected to the proposal.
Other measures announced by Chow on Friday include expanded online applications for new housing units, which she said will reduce the time it takes for them to be processed.
