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What the Committee of Adjustment approves, and how long it takes
Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment decides whether a project that does not quite fit the zoning by-law may go ahead anyway. It approves 90.8% of the applications it decides. It takes a median of 120 days to do it — and that clock runs before a building permit can be applied for, not alongside it.
For the whole timeline on your project, committee then permit, use the permit timeline for your type of work and ward.
- Applications on record
- 41,1582016 to today
- Approved
- 90.8%31,860 of 35,087 decided
- Refused
- 9.2%3,227 applications
- Median time to a decision
- 120 days33,791 closed applications
What this does to the permit timeline
The headline number on this site is that half of Toronto building permits are issued within 27 days of the application. That is the whole answer only for a project that needs no variance. Where one is needed, the committee has to decide first: a median of 120 days, then the permit’s 27. Back to back, about 147 days, not 27.
The two medians come from different sets of applications and cannot be added to produce a single project’s wait. They are a realistic order of magnitude for a project that needs both steps, and a correction to the impression the permit figure alone gives. See permit wait times for the second half of that.
Applications by year filed
2026 is a part year and will keep filling until it closes.
Approval rate by type of work
| Type of work | Approved | Applications decided |
|---|---|---|
| Splitting one lot into two | 78.0% | 1,980 |
| Moving land from one lot to its neighbour | 83.5% | 291 |
| New home | 87.1% | 12,063 |
| Legalising something already built | 89.1% | 110 |
| New commercial or industrial building | 89.6% | 278 |
| Other | 92.4% | 6,039 |
| Addition to a home | 95.0% | 12,966 |
| Addition to a commercial or industrial building | 96.0% | 940 |
| Re-establishing a right of way | 96.4% | 28 |
| Correcting the title to a property | 97.9% | 47 |
| Creating a right of way over the land | 97.9% | 286 |
| A lease longer than 21 years | 100.0% | 44 |
Splitting one lot into two is the hardest ask at 78.0% approved across 1,980 decisions; a lease longer than 21 years clears 100.0%. Types with fewer than 20 decisions are not shown. These are the City's own application categories, named here in plain English: it files them as “Sever Lot”, “Leases over 21 Years” and so on.
By ward
| Ward | Median days | Approved | Applications |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Centre | 154 | 94.6% | 651 |
| Spadina-Fort York | 149 | 94.2% | 920 |
| Beaches-East York | 147 | 90.7% | 2,590 |
| University-Rosedale | 147 | 90.3% | 2,450 |
| Toronto-Danforth | 145 | 91.8% | 3,006 |
| Toronto-St. Paul's | 143 | 91.9% | 2,507 |
| Davenport | 135 | 92.5% | 2,204 |
| Parkdale-High Park | 133 | 93.8% | 2,207 |
| Scarborough Southwest | 120 | 88.9% | 2,604 |
| Scarborough-Agincourt | 113 | 86.5% | 406 |
| Scarborough North | 113 | 88.6% | 320 |
| Scarborough-Rouge Park | 107 | 89.7% | 751 |
| Etobicoke-Lakeshore | 105 | 88.6% | 3,888 |
| Scarborough Centre | 104 | 94.6% | 711 |
| Scarborough-Guildwood | 104 | 91.3% | 405 |
| Willowdale | 101 | 83.8% | 2,209 |
| Don Valley West | 98 | 89.5% | 2,609 |
| Don Valley North | 98 | 93.3% | 585 |
| Don Valley East | 97 | 93.6% | 681 |
| Etobicoke North | 97 | 94.9% | 595 |
| Eglinton-Lawrence | 95 | 90.0% | 3,059 |
| York South-Weston | 94 | 92.3% | 1,622 |
| York Centre | 93 | 90.2% | 1,121 |
| Humber River-Black Creek | 93 | 94.2% | 382 |
| Etobicoke Centre | 86 | 95.1% | 1,609 |
Toronto Centre takes longest at 154 days; Etobicoke Centre is quickest at 86. On approval, Willowdale is the strictest at 83.8% and Etobicoke Centre the most permissive at 95.1%.
Neighbourhoods with the most applications
| Neighbourhood | Applications | Approved | Median days |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stonegate-Queensway | 946 | 93.9% | 91 |
| Bedford Park-Nortown | 916 | 88.9% | 96 |
| Birchcliffe-Cliffside | 903 | 92.4% | 106 |
| The Beaches | 751 | 90.9% | 153 |
| South Riverdale | 740 | 92.1% | 146 |
| Annex | 727 | 91.0% | 146 |
| Lawrence Park South | 689 | 89.1% | 97 |
| Leaside-Bennington | 685 | 89.8% | 95 |
| Danforth East York | 661 | 88.5% | 146 |
| Lansing-Westgate | 656 | 80.7% | 104 |
| Alderwood | 621 | 87.6% | 156 |
| Long Branch | 613 | 69.2% | 196 |
| Clairlea-Birchmount | 611 | 83.4% | 157 |
| High Park-Swansea | 611 | 93.7% | 133 |
| Rosedale-Moore Park | 602 | 91.5% | 142 |
| Islington | 597 | 93.2% | 91 |
| Trinity-Bellwoods | 572 | 91.2% | 146 |
| Lawrence Park North | 558 | 87.8% | 94 |
| Banbury-Don Mills | 558 | 92.8% | 94 |
| East Willowdale | 530 | 86.8% | 104 |
| Oakwood Village | 522 | 93.0% | 131 |
| Mount Pleasant East | 516 | 90.4% | 108 |
| Mimico-Queensway | 468 | 92.7% | 98 |
| Humewood-Cedarvale | 468 | 92.3% | 142 |
| Forest Hill South | 459 | 91.5% | 152 |
The 25 neighbourhoods with the most applications on record, of Toronto’s 158.
How this is measured
Counted from the City’s Committee of Adjustment application datasets: active applications, those closed since 2017, and a 2016 back-file. 41,158 applications carry a street name and are counted here. They are placed on a ward, neighbourhood and street by the same address match the permit pages use, which resolves 97% of them.
The approval rate counts only applications the committee actually decided — approved or refused. Withdrawn and deferred applications are left out of the rate rather than counted as refusals, which would overstate how often the committee says no. The City writes the decision as free text, so “approved”, “granted”, “approved on condition” and “conditional approval” are read as the same outcome.
Only the closed-since-2017 file records a final decision date, so every median on this page is measured over those applications and no earlier ones. The median is calendar days from the date the application was received to the date the file was closed, which includes the wait for a hearing date. A page shows a rate or a median only where at least 20 applications support it. Latest permit on file: Nov 8, 2026. Source and caveats: method.
Whether a given project needs a variance at all is a zoning question this data cannot answer. The City explains the committee’s role and how to apply at toronto.ca.