Housing options throughout the city are poised to expand, courtesy of a new comprehensive zoning bylaw unanimously approved by council on Tuesday.
Basement apartments will soon be allowed to have three bedrooms, up from two, and low density properties are allowed to have two accessory units in addition to the main residence (a basement unit and a detached unit in the rear yard) or triplexes, with the upset limit on the square footage of those yard units removed.
Steps were also taken to speed up the development application process, including pre-zoning a number of properties for residential use, meaning wanting developers can move straight to site plan approval if their plans don’t exceed what’s permitted.
“I’m extremely happy with the changes we’ve made that will really facilitate more housing options for people and choice,” Mayor Cam Guthrie told GuelphToday after the meeting. “By ending exclusionary zoning especially for residential neighbourhoods and areas, and instantly allowing up to triplexes, is an amazing thing for the city to be doing.”
The new comprehensive zoning bylaw won’t be in place until after the city has issued notice of its passing, followed by a 20-day appeal period, explained Krista Walkey, the city’s general manager of planning and building services.
Coun. Leanne Caron sought to have the number of basement apartment bedrooms maintained at two, but that effort failed in an 11-2 vote. The supporting vote came from Coun. Cathy Downer.
Caron said it’s not known what impact the allowance of rear yard units and other density intensification efforts will have on existing infrastructure, so she’d rather wait a while before adding a third basement bedroom.
City staff proposed in 2020 that three-bedroom basement units be allowed, but council of the day opted to hold it at two.
“I believe it’s contributed to some of the housing crisis we have,” Guthrie said of the 2020 decision, noting backyard units can be much more expensive to build than basement apartments. “We need to be able to offer people choice.”
In a separate motion, council unanimously directed city staff to investigate the possibility of allowing more than three units, with a report and recommendations to return to council by the end of March, 2025.
In addition, council approved an increase in driveway widths for semi-detached homes and on-street townhouses, with new parking options such as city-owned parking lots in residential areas to be considered.
The issue of driveway widths consumed much of council’s time during the Tuesday session and was ultimately approved 11-2, with Caron and Downer opposed.
Gibson referred to the change as a “subtle adjustment” to the existing bylaw for semi-detached and on-street townhomes, which currently caps driveway widths at 50 per cent the lot frontage or five metres, whichever is less.
The new limit is 60 per cent for semi-detached homes, which have a minimum frontage width of eight metres, and 65 per cent for on-street townhouses, which have a minimum frontage width of six metres. The five-metre maximum width was kept.
“This is essentially wrapping our arms around, I would say about 85 per cent of people who are currently in harm’s way of this bylaw,” Gibson said. “This would allow most of those people to get their vehicles off the road.”
Enforcement of the bylaw was put on hold in 2019 pending completion of a review of parking regulations, which is currently set to begin in 2025.
“The sky hasn’t fallen on residential neighbourhoods to date,” Gibson said, noting the change will provide “hundreds, if not thousands” of residents who have expanded the width of their driveway to rest easy knowing bylaw enforcement officers won’t come knocking.
The previous comprehensive zoning bylaw, which sets rules for properties throughout the city, was put in place in 1995, though it’s been amended many times in the years since.
The purpose of an updated bylaw, staff explained, is to align the rules with provincial legislation changes, pre-zone lands for development in order to streamline the approval process, reduce the number of site-specific exemptions being sought by developers and make the document more reader friendly.
The comprehensive zoning bylaw will need to be amended again, in light of provincially made changes to the city’s official plan announced last week. City staff told GuelphToday they have up to a year to present the necessary zoning updates to council for approval.
