Item - 2015.PG8.12

The Planning and Growth Management Committee:

1. Requested the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to consider revising the language in the Townhouse and Low-Rise Apartment Guidelines that would require, without incentives, the development industry to:

a. build family size housing units; and

b. define what size best represents the definition of family size units.

2.  Directed the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning to use Attachment 1, Draft Townhouse and Low-Rise Apartment Guidelines, to the report (October 20, 2015) from the Chief Planner and Executive Director, City Planning as the basis for further consultation and report back to the Planning and Growth Management Committee at its meeting on May 11, 2016.

The purpose of this report is to introduce the Townhouse and Low-rise Apartment Design Guidelines Project to Council and to outline City Planning, Urban Design's objectives, strategy and work completed-to-date for this important City-building initiative.

The primary objectives of the Project include:

•  Develop new Urban Design Guidelines for Townhouses and Low-rise Apartments to update and replace the current Council-adopted Urban Design Guidelines for Infill Townhouses (2003)

•  Develop these Low-rise Guidelines together with internal and external stakeholders in an open, collaborative and highly consultative manner

•  Coordinate these Guidelines with the development of new low-rise built form urban design policies within the City of Toronto's Five-Year Official Plan Review

•  Identify related City policies, standards and guidelines, such as the Development Infrastructure Policy and Standards (DIPS), which influence townhouse and low-rise apartment development and recommend measures to align design expectations and outcomes.

City Planning, Urban Design will continue to develop and refine the Draft Townhouse and Low-rise Apartment Guidelines with the intent to report to Planning and Growth Management Committee in the second quarter of 2016 with finalized Guidelines for adoption.