[URBAN NOTE] "What You Need to Know About Toronto’s Official Plan"

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist's Stefan Novakovic explains for readers what, exactly, the Official Plan of Toronto means insofar as construction and the shape of neighbourhoods.

As an unprecedented wave of high-rise development continues to transform Toronto’s streetscapes and skylines, the city’s explosive growth sometimes seems chaotic, impulsive, and unplanned.

While the ongoing construction boom is visibly changing the city’s face, a comparatively inconspicuous yet thorough planning framework of regulations and policies has governed land use policy—and, more broadly, the evolution of the urban realm—over most of the last decade. Though relatively little-known, the City of Toronto’s Official Plan outlines a comprehensive vision for growth and development through to 2031.

Now in the midst of a five-year review, the Official Plan’s re-assessment by City Staff and Council provides a good opportunity to understand some of the central tenets of Toronto’s most important planning document.

Like its predecessors, the current Official Plan sets out density and zoning regulations for new development. It also broadly outlines planning policy goals relating to housing, infrastructure, economic development, and environmental stewardship. That means that when a new condo is proposed in your neighbourhood, the Official Plan provides the land use principles and guidelines for what is appropriate, and what constraints should be placed on the site. With these guidelines in place, an industrial plant or busy restaurant can’t become your neighbour on a quiet residential street, but there may be opportunities to build mid-rises or high rises on the corners of transit corridors like Yonge, Bloor, or along streetcar lines.

Though first adopted by City Council in November 2002 [PDF], the current Official Plan was not approved by the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) until June 2006 [PDF], officially becoming the City’s first post-amalgamation Plan some eight years after the fact.

There is much much more, including detailed explanation of different features and abundant photos and maps, at Torontoist.