Mid-Rise Manual
Five ways to unlock mid-rise housing and end the housing shortage
INTRODUCTION
The only way to build enough homes fast enough to fix Ontario’s housing shortage is to focus construction on mid-rise housing.
Ontario must redirect the construction now wasted on suburban sprawl into 5-11 storey, multi-family buildings on existing, currently low-rise, city, town, and suburban streets.
Unfortunately, zoning rules, complex approvals, outdated building codes and excessive fees often make it impossible to build mid-rise housing where it is needed most. These barriers have forced builders to use costly building methods, designs, materials, building sites and approval processes, that make them as costly to build as less-efficient forms of housing, like suburban sprawl. As a result, very little mid-rise housing has been built at all.
The Mid-Rise Manual is a lawmakers guide to unlocking mid-rise, by making it legal, practical and cost-effective to build.
FIVE STEPS TO MAKE MID-RISE THE SOLUTION TO THE HOUSING SHORTAGE
LOWER
LAND
COSTS
for mid-rise developments - starting with blanket permission for six-storey apartment buildings on every existing residential major street and avenue throughout Ontario. existing suburbs, cities, and small towns.
LOWER
CONSTRUCTION COSTS
with safe and simple wood frame construction - starting by removing residential parking minimums, ending “step-back” requirements, and by legalizing single staircase designs up to six storeys and “exposed mass timber” construction up to eight storeys.
LOWER
CARRYING AND PROCEDURAL COSTS
with “as of right” zoning and streamlined, standardized utility connections that make mid-apartment buildings almost as quick and easy as low-rise houses to get approved on existing residential major streets - and much easier to get approved than greenfield sprawl.
ELIMINATE OR LOWER GOVERNMENT FEES
charges, and taxes for infill mid-rise housing to reflect the lower up-front cost, and long-term fiscal benefits to government and existing residents of adding more homes and more neighbours to streets and neighbourhoods that already exist.
REDUCE
BARRIERS TO SMALL BUILDERS
and renovators switching to mid-rise construction, starting with procedural support and guidance, and low-cost, long-term fixed-rate financing for construction of mid-rise buildings.
Let's take action!
Commissioned by Environmental Defence and Robert Eisenberg, with input from Counsel and Land Use and Land Development Program Manager Phil Pothen, Executive Director Tim Gray, and Robert Eisenberg.
Written by LGA Architectural Partners and SvN Architects + Planners with special thanks to Sajecki Planning, Blair Scorgie, Jonathan Diamond, Steven Webber and Graig Uens.
© Copyright October 2024 by ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE CANADA. Permission is granted to the public to reproduce or disseminate this report, in part, or in whole, free of charge, in any format or medium without requiring specific permission. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE CANADA.
