The Planning Department's ongoing TOcore initiative is studying a wide range of issues currently facing our rapidly growing city, and could bring about sweeping changes to design and planning in Toronto's downtown core. One component of the initiative is currently nearing implementation, with city planners seeking to amend the Official Plan and zoning by-laws with updates to tall building setbacks in order to bring the regulations more in line with current practice.

View of the downtown skyline, image by Forum contributor robmci.

The Offical Plan Amendment (OPA) is broken down into two sections. Section A includes clarifications on definitions regarding tall buildings. The current Official Plan describes a tall building as having a base (the podium), a middle (the tower), and a top (the mechanical penthouse). The amendment proposes to define a tall building as having a base building and a tower component, but also acknowledges that the form of tall buildings can differ from this podium-and-tower typology. A base building is defined as the lower storeys of a tall building, while the tower is defined as the storeys above the base building; a height at which a structure is considered a 'tall building' is never defined.

Section B of the OPA lays out the intent of the tall building setbacks which all new proposals must adhere to. These include:

Enhancing the ability to provide a high-quality, comfortable public realm;

Protecting development potential of other sites within the block;

providing access to sunlight on surrounding streets, parks, open spaces, school yards, and other public or civic properties;

providing access to natural light and reasonable level of privacy for occupants of tall buildings;

providing pedestrian-level views of the sky between towers particularly as experienced from adjacent streets, parks, and open spaces, and views between towers for occupants of tall buildings; and

limiting the impacts of uncomfortable wind conditions on streets, parks, open spaces, and surrounding properties.

Section B also includes a sentence stipulating that super-tall buildings may require greater setbacks in order to meet the intents stated above. Base building heights will be governed by the existing and/or planned context, in order to provide an adequate streetwall and pedestrian scale.

View of the downtown skyline, image by Michael Ianni.

The Zoning By-Law Amendments (ZBLA) present numerical values that embody the intent laid out in the OPA. Current zoning by-laws in the downtown area generally stipulate a 5.5-metre setback from lot lines for a wall with windows, while a wall without windows can be built without any setbacks. The proposed amendments to the zoning by-laws dictate the following setbacks for new tall buildings:

3 metres to a lot line that abuts a street;

12.5 metres to the centre line of an abutting street;

12.5 metres to a lot line that neither abuts a street nor a public lane (ie. an interior lot line);

12.5 metres to the centre line of a public lane, where the lot abuts a lane; and

25 metre separation distance from building face to building face if more than one tall building is proposed on a site.

It is important to note that these setbacks only apply to any portion of a building above 24 metres from grade, regardless of the total height of the building. The 24 metres represents the maximum height of a base building as described in the Tall Building Design Guidelines.

As well, neither the OPA nor the ZBLA distinguishes between building use (residential or non-residential) or whether or not faces of the buildings contain windows; these amendments apply equally to all buildings that exceed 24 metres in height.

Growth of the downtown core over the past decade, image courtesy of the City of Toronto.

These amendments will have minimal effect on the way new developments are reviewed by city planning, as these guidelines have been used in practice since the introduction of the "Design Criteria for Review of Tall Building Proposals" in 2006, and later reinforced with the Tall Building Design Guidelines published in 2013. The amendments will simply update the Official Plan and zoning by-laws to match what has already been in practice over the past decade.

Though these zoning by-laws may seem restrictive, the City also stresses that variances may still be granted to proposals that do not quite meet the setbacks laid out in the by-laws so long as they are in line with the intent of the Official Plan. Projects will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and will be individually judged as to whether or not a variance can be granted.

It is important to note that these changes will only apply to the downtown area, which is defined as the region bordered by Bathurst Street, Lake Ontario, the Don River, Rosedale Valley Road, and the CPR tracks.

Map showing boundaries of the defined downtown region, image courtesy of the City of Toronto.

The OPA and ZBLA are set to go before the Toronto-East York Community Council in early September. Once the amendments are passed, they will apply to all proposals in the development pipeline not yet approved.

It is clear with these changes that the City is moving to codify its preferred podium-and-tower typology that is commonly seen throughout the GTA. The Official Plan and zoning by-laws do still allow for other typologies to happen and do not necessarily discourage them from being proposed, but the point tower seems to be the preferred solution to the issues associated with tall buildings.

What are your thoughts on the proposed amendments? Are they too restrictive, or is this a step in the right direction for development in the downtown core? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment in the space provided on this page.