What you need to know about the Committee of Adjustment and minor variances. Vol. 1.

By Donald Peckover

The Committee of Adjustment allows for minor variances to the City of Toronto Zoning Bylaws. These Bylaws are blunt, one-size-fits-all instruments. The Bylaws are very black and white: you can build this, and you can’t build that.  The Committee of Adjustment sees the particulars of a specific property and neighbourhood. They see the grey areas between what is allowable in the Bylaws, and what is reasonable from a planning perspective.

The whole process starts with a Zoning Review application to the City of Toronto Zoning Department (City department #1 in this story). The Zoning Examiner (City employee #1 in this story) reviews the proposed plans and compares them with the applicable Zoning Bylaws. They reply with a list of required variances – items where the proposed plans do not align with the bylaws.

Presently, there are two  Zoning Bylaws for Toronto: Bylaws written in the 1970s and 1980s for the pre-amalgamation boroughs (Toronto, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough,etc.), and the new Bylaw written in 2013 which harmonizes the previous boroughs under one all-encompassing bylaw.

Zoning By-Laws and You

Chances are, unfortunately, your new or renovated home may not conform to either set of bylaws, or one set but not the other. If so, a trip to the Committee of Adjustment is in your future.

With the list of variance items identified in the Zoning Review we make an application to the Committee of Adjustment (City department #2). There are a large number of applications and hearings due to the two bylaws, as well as the very active construction industry in Toronto, and therefore the hearing is typically scheduled 4+ months after the application date.

During these intervening months we work on preparing presentation diagrams for the hearing. For instance, if we are asking for a variance to allow a third storey addition, we will survey the nearby streets for other three-storey homes to demonstrate to the Committee of Adjustment that our proposal – even though not permitted by the Bylaws – is within the prevailing character of the neighbourhood.

By Sustainable

Approximately two weeks before the hearing date the Application Manager (City employee #2) will send out a Public Hearing Notice to neighbours within a 200’ [60m] radius of your property, informing them of the application and the upcoming hearing. Neighbours have an opportunity to support or object the proposal to the Committee of Adjustment.

You will also have to post a Public Hearing Poster on your property.

By Sustainable

Around this time, we also advise homeowners to approach their neighbours – and especially those immediately adjacent and most affected by the proposal – to obtain their signatures of support for the project. These letters carry a lot of influence with the Committee and demonstrate (much like the diagrams prepared) that even though the proposal is not permitted by the bylaws that your neighbours are OK with it. We forward these diagrams and signatures of support to the Application Manager prior to the hearing.

By Sustainable

The actual Committee of Adjustment hearing comes next in the process, and next in our blog series C of A: Vol. 2. Stay tune!