Item - 2018.TE32.12

The Toronto and East York Community Council recommends that:

1. City Council direct the City Solicitor and City staff, as appropriate, to attend at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal to support the proposed amendment to area specific Zoning By-laws 1049-2013 and 1050-2013 to delete clause 1.(4) and 2.(1)(A) respectively, limiting the permitted concentration of eating establishments, and to amend Map 1 to remove area designations (Area A-D), for reasons set out in the report (April 16, 2018) from the Acting Director, Community Planning, Toronto and East York District.

2. City Council direct City Planning staff to conduct another analysis in 2023 of the impact that eating establishments are having on the main street function of Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Avenue and of the continued land use conflicts, if any, between eating establishments and the surrounding residential neighbourhood, and assess whether there are any further concerns which would warrant another restaurant study.

This report recommends amending area specific By-laws 1049-2013 and 1050-2013, currently under appeal and adjourned sine die at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) (formerly the Ontario Municipal Board), as they pertain to Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Avenue, to remove a performance standard limiting the concentration of eating establishments to no more than 25 percent of the properties within each of Areas A – D, as identified on the Study Area Map (Attachment 1).

City Planning, in conjunction with its consultant, 360 Collective, studied the effectiveness and the impacts of the concentration provision of By-laws 1049-2013 and 1050-2013 and determined that the By-laws generally met their intended objectives of limiting the number of eating establishments, particularly for the section of the street identified as Area D, located between Dufferin Street and Brock Avenue. This, in turn, helped mitigate some of the land use conflicts between this use and the surrounding residential neighbourhood.

Furthermore, the By-laws were drafted to restrict the further proliferation of eating establishments in the areas already containing a large concentration (Areas B and D), while at the same time permitting some growth in the Study Area as a whole. However, despite this flexibility, the number of eating establishments within the Study Area actually declined from 71 to 64 between the passing of the By-laws in 2013 and the present day.

A number of market forces present within the Study Area itself, and generally across the city as a whole, help to explain why this decline may have occurred, including, increases in land values overall, increases in commercial rents, decreases in commercial vacancy rates, changes in the functionality of retail along main streets and, new trends related to the business operation of the restaurant industry. While the concentration provision in the By-laws may have had an immediate impact on quelling the influx of eating establishments in Areas B and D, the overall decline in eating establishments within the Study Area as a whole over the past three to four years is more likely due to the changing market forces noted above than the concentration restriction. For this reason, it is the recommendation of staff that the concentration restriction be removed from the By-laws.

This report reviews and recommends that area specific By-laws 1049-2013 and 1050-2013 be amended to delete the performance standard restricting the maximum permitted concentration of eating establishments to no more than 25% of the properties along Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Roncesvalles Avenue. The other performance standards of the By-laws, including maximum restaurant gross floor area of 200 square metres, restricting the use to the ground floor, limitations on accessory uses and prohibiting restaurant patios from locating  in the rear yard or on the rooftop, would remain in each By-law.

To this end, this report seeks Council's direction for the City Solicitor and other appropriate City staff, to request the LPAT to re-convene the hearing, adjourned sine die on June 23, 2014, and to delete this performance standard in By-laws 1049-2013 and 1050-2013. Furthermore, this report also recommends that, in five years, the City conduct a follow-up analysis on Queen Street West in the Study Area to determine the impacts, if any, that eating establishments are having on the main street function of the street and whether there are any continued land use conflicts with the surrounding residential neighbourhood.