Today I sat in a very intricate meeting, but excitingly different meeting with different people from the ward with varying opinions. I was attending the Harmonized Zoning By-law meeting... long winded title with really a lot of political talk.
My issues with this plan and the zoners who are coming together with this plan is the control of personal property space. They will be able to decide how much of your front yard is use for certain items and how much of the back. Terms being tossed around such as hard soil and soft soil on your property... you will be limited to how much patio stone to parking pad, sheds and so on you will be adding to your outdoor space. These wording decisions will continue with what you will have to what you might plan on adding. I am not against the the idea of getting more green spaces on properties and creating a guideline to which to follow, I do have an issue with the wording of seperating the front yard from the backyard.
The uniqueness and the characteristic of your home especially your exterior which is something that is your first selling feature and the curb appeal of your home is something I think that should be left to the owner under supervision. Never will a parking pad be offered to any home in my ward in the front of the house, you couldn`t attain the size of minimal parking spot while the back of your home could be green as possible.
Commercial property takes a big blow, perse... under this new by-law any new buildings but on any larger Avenues you would have to build a 3 storey property either for simply commercial usage or combination commercial/residential space. And all new properties will have to be built around 3 ft. from the sidewalk/city line.
While this by-law is mostly grossly important to those in the construction/building industries, these by-laws are important for current home owners who might want to change and update their home. Differences being peaks of houses will no longer vary, your neighbour and you both can`t surpass a 10.5 m height.
Zoning by-laws take a severe stab at the big box stores, under no circumstance will there be any zones to permit such a store in the greater Toronto, or amalgamated Toronto. Not sure how I feel about this... I can see the positive and the negatives to this complaint.
Some more interesting bits that I learned are such....
- There will be no business or schools that are allowed to be used in residential homes
- There will be no permitted Drive-thru in the city of Toronto.
- Limiting your house to a certain width so if you wanted more square footage you could only go up
- 50% soft soil restrictions on all forms of yards
- No more basement sloping driveway with garage.
- Place of worships and schools could not open up in commercial zones and take up commercial property.
My only concern about all the changes that are being offered is that if you wanted to open a school or place of worship... if you wanted to expand your home or build a one story home becuase you couldn`t walk up stairs, you would have to pay to have a designated area rezoned for your needs. Meaning specific case to case basis would perhaps have to pay for the city to simply rezone the property.
Please feel free to take a look at various different opinions out there, please share your opinions with me... this is your city and these are laws that affect those who buy, own and renovate city residents and commercial properties... I am interested in how this might affect some of you.
Real Estate Article
EyeWeekly`s point of view
Information the City is providing
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