Inclusionary Zoning Official Plan Policy Directions

The Act and regulation require that municipalities have an assessment report prepared that will be considered as part of the development and prior to the adoption of Official Plan policies. The assessment report is required to include information related to housing need and demand and the financial impacts on the housing market from inclusionary zoning. The City's assessment report has been drafted and will be utilized as part of the consultation program to provide context and rationale for the proposed policy directions. The draft assessment report is available at https://www.toronto.ca/InclusionaryZoning A final assessment report will be considered by Council as part of the recommended Official Plan Amendment. Issues of housing affordability have grown exponentially in recent years, impacting not only the City's most vulnerable residents, but increasingly low and moderate income households as well. The City's renters, particularly households looking for housing in today's market, have been most impacted by increasing housing affordability issues and are more and more often left with little choice but to pay more than 50 percent of their income on rent in order to live within access to transit, jobs and services. Housing affordability is also a concern for ownership households, as ownership prices have increased significantly and are out of reach of many households. Adding to these housing affordability issues, the provision of affordable housing has not kept up with the growth of the City, with only about 2 percent of new units built or approved over the last five years meeting the City's Official Plan definition of affordable housing, defined as at or below average market rent for the City of Toronto by unit type. In 2018, City Council provided a response to the Province on a proposed version of the inclusionary zoning regulation and reiterated the City's key principles for a successful inclusionary zoning framework. The proposed inclusionary zoning policy directions builds on these key principles and have been developed through in-depth analysis of housing need and demand over the past 10 years, current trends in market pricing for ownership and rental housing, and analysis of the potential impacts of inclusionary zoning on the financial viability of market developments. The policy directions have also been informed by initial stakeholder consultations with key representatives of the development industry and housing and homelessness organizations. Affordable housing provided through inclusionary zoning may be provided as affordable rental housing or affordable ownership housing. City staff were directed in 2016 to report on further amendments to the Official Plan affordable ownership housing definition in conjunction with inclusionary zoning. The intent of revising the definition is to better support the provision of affordable ownership housing through Official Plan policies. This report includes proposed direction on an updated definition for affordable ownership housing. The proposed definition will be consulted on along with the proposed inclusionary zoning policy directions, and is expected to be further refined based on feedback and additional market analysis. On May 2, 2019 Bill 108 (the More Homes, More Choice Act, 2019) was introduced in the provincial legislature. The Bill proposes to amend 13 different statutes, including the Planning Act. Bill 108 is out for consultation until June 1, 2019. City staff are currently reviewing Bill 108, including any implications for inclusionary zoning.

3. The Planning and Housing Committee direct staff to report back in Q4 2019 on the findings from the consultation, the results of any further analysis, and prepare recommended Official Plan inclusionary zoning policies and affordable ownership housing definition.