Accessing Toronto's Comprehensive Zoning By-Law

Since I was just turned down for a job because I had no experience accessing zoning by-laws and "other documents" from the city, I figured I'd put together a guide to accessing it/figuring it out for others in the field.

I found out today that it's actually quite simple. First, you have to call the number of the District the property is located in. Here are the numbers:
South District: 416-392-7539 (Zoning at South District is 416-392-7522)
North District: 416-395-7000
West District: 416-394-8002
East District: 416-396-7304

You would then press several buttons to get you to Toronto staff member who will tell you the zoning for the property. Note that there also many other planning application-related options for you when you call one of these numbers, though I will not be looking into those in this post. Potentially in a later one.

Anyway, the Toronto staff member will give you the zoning of the property, and will likely assume that you are a developer or property owner trying to see if the use you want will be allowed. I used 100 Queen's Park as my example, as I was interested to see what the zoning for the ROM was. The ROM is zoned as Q, which is a kind of Mixed Use District, and is also apparently zoned as heritage according to the Toronto Staff member who I spoke with, though I think she meant that it is a designated heritage property. She also said that By-laws 340-03 and 333-02 are listed with the property, though she wasn't sure how they might apply. I actually still have to figure out what these are.

Anyway, after I got all the zoning information from the City of Toronto staff member, I went down to the Urban Affairs library at 55 John Street and looked at Toronto's Comprehensive Zoning By-law (known as By-law 438-86). It's actually divided in two books, though I only looked at the first one, as the second one is mostly appendices and maps. Anyway, in the first book, I was able to find the Q designation under the section dealing with Mixed Uses. The book is organized quite strangely, with with it being organized by uses of property (eg. Residential, Industrial, Mixed Use), and then by types of uses within each broader designation. Within the mixed use listing, rather than listing out what falls under each mixed use designation (which include CR, MCR, Q and others), it lists different types of property. I obviously found Q under Museums. There is also a P in one of the columns for the Museum row of the table indicating that Museums are a permitted use under the mixed use designation. One thing that I still have to find out is where in this book to find the density allowance for the site, which I forgot to look for today. Honestly, I'm considering buying the books for By-Law 438-86, as well as some books on the development application process in Ontario, and studying them all summer in my free time, as I won't have any hope of working for a developer or the city if I don't know this stuff inside and out. I will also try to do some research on zoning by-laws in other cities and write a short research paper about how Toronto's comprehensive zoning by-law could be improved by incorporating things that have worked well elsewhere.

One of the more interesting things about the zoning by-law is that it lists an asterisk beside basically every use to denote the fact that accessory uses are permitted. The definition of accessory has become a major issue in the planning of industrial districts where big box stores and other retail establishments are encroaching on employment lands, though this is not the issue here, as this is dealing with accessory uses on the same site as the primary use.

Anyway, I hope this is helpful to some of you. After I do some more research, I will make some postings on the development application process.