Item - 2015.PG6.6

The Planning and Growth Management Committee deferred consideration of the item until its October 8, 2015 Planning and Growth Management Committee meeting.

In July 2010, Council directed staff to use the Mid-Rise Building Performance Standards in the evaluation of mid-rise development proposals.  Council also adopted a monitoring period to the end of 2014 in order to measure the effectiveness of the Standards. 

This report represents the results of over five years of monitoring of the Performance Standards through data analysis of mid-rise building applications and consultation with city staff, City Council and external stakeholders (e.g. local residents and ratepayer groups, architects, urban designers, planners and developers), including experiences at the Ontario Municipal Board and advice from the Design Review Panel.  Review of the data analysis coupled with feedback received guided the recommended changes to the Performance Standards set forth in this report.

This report recommends that the Planning and Growth Management Committee approve the proposed changes to the Performance Standards, and update the guidelines to be stylistically formatted into the City of Toronto urban design guideline template.

In general, the monitoring and consultations have indicated that the Performance Standards are working well, requiring only a few changes.  The recommended changes include: additional guidelines for very deep lots; slight adjustments and guidance for grade related retail uses; maximum height in Character Areas with narrow right-of-ways; and more clarity and elaboration regarding the minimum 5 hours of sunlight and stepbacks requirements.  Minor corrections to the Retail Priority and Character Area maps are also needed, and a few Performance Standards were deemed redundant and are suggested to be removed altogether.  A summary of the feedback is documented in Attachment 1, while the data collected is presented in Attachment 2.