This bill amends the Planning Act to nationally standardize municipal planning rules aimed at adding housing supply. It requires the provincial Minister to publish annual, unit‑level housing data (including bedroom counts and selling‑price bands) and forces official plans and municipal by‑laws to permit more small multi‑unit housing and limited mid‑rise development on qualifying major streets.
The changes strip several common municipal controls for specified small housing types — including minimum lot sizes, floor‑area ratios, certain height and setback limits and parking requirements — and remove most appeal routes for those provincial policy and by‑law rules (Minister appeals remain). For developers, municipal planners, and housing analysts, the bill replaces discretionary local limits with provincewide minimum permissions and adds a new data stream intended to monitor price and unit mix outcomes.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill requires the Minister to collect and publish annual data on housing starts and completions by unit mix and $50,000 selling‑price bands, and it amends the Planning Act so official plans must authorize up to four units in houses, small multi‑unit buildings up to four storeys, and mid‑rise (6–11 storeys) on major streets in municipalities of 100,000+ with sufficient servicing. It also prevents official plans and by‑laws from imposing certain restrictions (lot size minima, FSRs for 3–6 units, some height/setback limits, and parking mandates) and limits appeal rights to the Minister only.
Who It Affects
Directly affects single‑detached, semi‑detached and rowhouse parcels where owners or developers might add up to four units; small‑scale developers and builders of 3–6 unit projects; municipal planning departments and local councils (especially in municipalities with population ≥100,000); and utilities responsible for water and sewage capacity planning.
Why It Matters
It shifts the baseline of what is allowed in Ontario’s urban residential areas from locally determined limits to provincially required permissions, narrowing municipal regulatory tools and accelerating opportunities for ‘missing‑middle’ housing. The new annual data requirement also creates a standardized, public dataset to evaluate whether increased permissions translate to more units at various price points.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill creates two linked policy tracks: one administrative (data) and one prescriptive (land use). On data, the province must collect yearly counts of housing units being built or completed across Ontario, break out unit mix including bedroom counts, and report how those units distribute across selling‑price buckets in $50,000 increments.
The Minister must publish that dataset within 90 days after year‑end, creating a recurring, comparable market feed for analysts and policymakers.
On land use, the bill requires every municipal official plan to include explicit policies that authorize: (1) up to four residential units in a detached, semi‑detached or rowhouse (including an ancillary structure), (2) multi‑unit residential buildings up to four storeys, and (3) mid‑rise buildings of six to 11 storeys on “major streets” and transit corridors — but the mid‑rise rule applies only in single‑tier or lower‑tier municipalities with populations of at least 100,000 and where sufficient sewage and water capacity exists. The Minister can require municipalities by regulation to prepare servicing plans to demonstrate capacity for those mid‑rise developments.The bill also constrains both official plans and municipal by‑laws.
It bars official plans and zoning by‑laws from effectively prohibiting four or fewer units on qualifying urban parcels, forbids minimum lot size policies for those parcels, prevents imposing floor‑area ratios on residential buildings with three to six units, stops plans from banning up to four‑storey residential buildings, prohibits minimum setback rules for buildings with four to six units, and stops by‑laws from requiring parking for buildings with at least four units. Importantly, the usual appeal routes against official plan policies and implementing by‑laws are removed for these provisions — only the Minister may appeal — meaning local opponents will have limited statutory recourse under the Planning Act.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The Minister must publish annual data on units built or completed, including bedroom counts and selling price in $50,000 bands, within 90 days after year‑end.
Official plans must authorize up to four residential units in detached, semi‑detached or rowhouses and permit an ancillary structure for one additional unit.
Official plans must permit multi‑unit residential buildings up to four storeys and, in municipalities of 100,000+ with adequate sewage and water, mid‑rise buildings of 6–11 storeys on major streets and transit corridors.
Official plans and by‑laws cannot impose minimum lot sizes for parcels allowing up to four units, cannot apply floor‑to‑area ratio rules to buildings with 3–6 units, cannot prohibit buildings of four or fewer storeys, and cannot require parking for buildings with at least four units.
The bill removes municipal appeal rights under the Planning Act against these policies and related by‑laws; only the Minister may file appeals regarding them.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Annual housing data collection and publication
This new section obliges the Minister to collect annual counts of units under construction or completed, record unit mix including bedroom counts, and tabulate selling prices in $50,000 increments. The Minister must publish the year’s data within 90 days on a government website. Practically, that creates a recurring, standardized source for unit‑level supply-side analysis and price distribution — useful for provincial monitoring and compliance checks against policy goals.
Mandatory official‑plan policies for small multi‑units and mid‑rise
These new subsections force official plans to include policies authorizing (a) up to four units in houses, (b) multi‑unit residential buildings up to four storeys, and (c) mid‑rise (6–11 storeys) on major streets in municipalities of 100,000+ provided sewage/water capacity exists. The bill also empowers the Minister to require servicing plans by regulation. This flips the usual discretionary model: municipalities must have enabling policy language even if they previously prohibited such development.
Limits on appeals for these policies (Minister exception)
The bill removes statutory appeals under subsections that normally allow third‑party appeals against official plan policies and implementing by‑laws, but explicitly preserves the Minister’s right to appeal. That narrows opportunities for local stakeholders and opponents to use the Planning Act appeal mechanisms to block or delay the new policy permissions, concentrating oversight and challenge at the provincial level.
Prohibitions on certain municipal controls in official plans
The bill replaces and expands the existing limits on municipal policy by forbidding official plans from effectively prohibiting four or fewer units on qualifying urban parcels and by prohibiting minimum lot size policies for those parcels. It also bars official plans from imposing floor‑to‑area ratios on 3–6 unit buildings, prohibiting residential buildings of four or fewer storeys, imposing minimum setbacks for 4–6 unit buildings, and requiring parking for buildings with at least four units. Those prohibitions remove several common regulatory levers municipalities use to limit density.
Duty on councils and limits on by‑law authority
Councils must ensure their zoning by‑laws give effect to the new official‑plan policies. Mirroring the official‑plan prohibitions, the bill also amends the by‑law authority to prevent municipalities from enacting zoning that would re‑introduce minimum lot sizes, FSRs for certain small buildings, height prohibitions for up to four storeys, setback minima for 4–6 unit structures, or parking requirements for buildings with four or more units. That closes the loop: municipalities cannot use by‑laws to nullify the provincial permission.
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Explore this topic in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- Renters and modest buyers seeking more small‑unit supply — the bill increases legal pathways for converting or constructing small multi‑unit buildings and may raise the stock of lower‑cost units over time.
- Developers, small builders and homeowners wanting to add rental units — clearer, provincewide permission reduces zoning risk for 2–4 unit projects and small low‑rise apartment buildings.
- Transit‑oriented development advocates and municipal planners in large cities — mid‑rise allowances on major streets support density along corridors and could help meet regional housing targets.
- Policy analysts and researchers — the new standardized annual dataset gives a repeatable basis to measure unit mix and price outcomes across municipalities.
Who Bears the Cost
- Single‑family homeowners and neighbourhood associations opposing densification — may face increased infill and change without local appeals under the Planning Act.
- Municipal planning departments and local councils — must update official plans and zoning, enforce new rules, and (for large municipalities) prepare servicing plans if the Minister requires them, consuming staff time and resources.
- Local infrastructure providers and utilities — water and sewage systems may need upgrades to support new mid‑rise permissions, and costs or timing for those upgrades are not directly funded by the bill.
- Heritage, conservation and local design review bodies — loss of some planning controls (setbacks, FSR, parking) limits local tools to manage context, potentially increasing conflicts and the need for alternative design review processes.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The central tension is between accelerating housing supply through prescriptive, provincewide permissions (and limiting local appeals) and preserving municipal control to manage local character, infrastructure capacity and community consent; the bill solves the supply‑certainty problem for builders but leaves municipalities and utilities to absorb the infrastructure, fiscal and design consequences.
The bill combines hard permissions with tight limitations on municipal discretion. That reduces approval risk for small multi‑unit projects but shifts the burden of accommodating growth to municipalities and their servicing systems.
The Minister’s power to require servicing plans is significant, but the bill does not provide funding or timelines for upgrades; municipalities may face stranded permissions where policy allows mid‑rise but servicing and capital budgets do not. Enforcement mechanics are also thin: municipalities must update plans and by‑laws, but the bill does not create a clear provincial compliance timetable or penalties for non‑conforming local instruments beyond the existing legislative framework.
Removing appeal rights for most third parties concentrates oversight at the provincial level through Ministerial appeals. That speeds implementation but raises procedural and political risks: opponents may seek judicial review or resort to other statutory regimes (heritage, environmental assessments, conservation authorities) to challenge projects.
The bill’s technical prohibitions (no FSR for 3–6 units, no parking requirements for 4+ units) change design and financing dynamics — lenders and insurers may reassess underwriting for projects lacking conventional parking or with different massing rules, with real effects on project feasibility.
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