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What Toronto’s zoning by-law allows, and what gets built
Every property in Toronto sits in a zone under Zoning By-law 569-2013, and the zone decides what may be built there. 758,632 building permits on this site fall inside a mapped zone. 288,142 of them — 38.0% — are in RD zones, the most restrictive residential category, where 92.6% of the work is on a detached house.
- Permits with a zone
- 758,632of 997,873 on record
- In residential zones
- 74.2%563,238 permits
- In RD zones
- 38.0%288,142 permits
- Most detached-zoned area
- 99.2%Princess-Rosethorn
What is actually built in each zone
| Zone | By-law section | Permits | What was built there, most common first |
|---|---|---|---|
| RD | 10.20 | 288,142 | SFD - Detached, 2 Unit - Detached, Laneway / Rear Yard Suite |
| R | 10.10 | 187,985 | SFD - Detached, SFD - Semi-Detached, SFD - Townhouse |
| CR | 40.10 | 132,258 | Office, Retail Store, Multiple Unit Building |
| RM | 10.80 | 49,919 | SFD - Detached, SFD - Semi-Detached, Apartment Building |
| RS | 10.40 | 21,624 | SFD - Detached, SFD - Semi-Detached, 2 Unit - Detached |
| E | 60.20 | 18,469 | Industrial, Office, Warehouse |
| RT | 10.60 | 15,568 | SFD - Townhouse, SFD - Detached, SFD - Semi-Detached |
| RA | 15.10 | 12,485 | Apartment Building, Stacked Townhouses, SFD - Townhouse |
| CRE | 50.10 | 7,827 | Office, Multiple Use/Non Residential, Restaurant Greater Than 30 Seats |
| RAC | 15.20 | 4,668 | Apartment Building, SFD - Townhouse, Parking Garage |
The by-law says what a zone permits. This column says what was permitted in fact, counted from the building permits themselves. It is the check on reading a zone label: RD reads as detached housing and 92.6% of its permits are on detached houses, which is the by-law and the record agreeing. Zone codes are the City’s own; this site does not expand them into labels of its own invention, so follow the section number into the by-law text for the wording that governs.
Neighbourhoods where detached zoning dominates
| Neighbourhood | Permits in RD zones | Permits with a zone | Most common zone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess-Rosethorn | 99.2% | 5,772 | RD |
| Kingsway South | 97.3% | 5,849 | RD |
| Woodbine-Lumsden | 96.2% | 4,135 | RD |
| Highland Creek | 95.2% | 3,038 | RD |
| Willowdale West | 95.0% | 4,906 | RD |
| Lansing-Westgate | 94.7% | 6,943 | RD |
| Edenbridge-Humber Valley | 94.5% | 4,827 | RD |
| Islington | 93.2% | 8,660 | RD |
| Newtonbrook East | 92.4% | 4,069 | RD |
| East Willowdale | 92.1% | 7,213 | RD |
| Avondale | 90.2% | 1,086 | RD |
| Maple Leaf | 90.2% | 2,283 | RD |
| Cliffcrest | 90.2% | 5,687 | RD |
| Old East York | 88.9% | 4,824 | RD |
| Bridle Path-Sunnybrook-York Mills | 88.5% | 6,860 | RD |
| Bedford Park-Nortown | 88.1% | 16,113 | RD |
| Stonegate-Queensway | 87.6% | 11,892 | RD |
| Guildwood | 86.2% | 1,871 | RD |
| Bendale South | 85.3% | 1,260 | RD |
| O'Connor-Parkview | 84.8% | 6,069 | RD |
The 20 neighbourhoods with the highest share of permits in RD zones, of the 156 with enough zoned permits to measure. Princess-Rosethorn is the most single-zoned place in the city at 99.2%.
And where it is absent
| Neighbourhood | Permits in RD zones | Permits with a zone | Most common zone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Humber Bay Shores | 0.0% | 369 | RA |
| North Toronto | 0.0% | 1,918 | CR |
| Thorncliffe Park | 0.0% | 1,357 | E |
| North St.James Town | 0.0% | 1,587 | CR |
| Regent Park | 0.0% | 834 | R |
| West Queen West | 0.0% | 2,988 | R |
| Harbourfront-CityPlace | 0.0% | 320 | CR |
| Church-Wellesley | 0.0% | 3,460 | CR |
| South Eglinton-Davisville | 0.0% | 4,069 | R |
| Wellington Place | 0.0% | 9,752 | CRE |
These are not the same kind of place as the list above: a neighbourhood with no RD zoning is usually a downtown or waterfront area built under Commercial Residential rules, where housing and shops share a building.
By ward
| Ward | Permits in RD zones | Permits with a zone | Most common zone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Willowdale | 91.0% | 26,514 | RD |
| Etobicoke Centre | 87.0% | 30,999 | RD |
| Scarborough-Rouge Park | 74.9% | 19,587 | RD |
| York Centre | 73.2% | 18,974 | RD |
| Scarborough-Guildwood | 64.9% | 10,390 | RD |
| Scarborough-Agincourt | 63.1% | 9,988 | RD |
| Eglinton-Lawrence | 62.5% | 52,833 | RD |
| Scarborough Centre | 61.5% | 15,743 | RD |
| Don Valley North | 59.0% | 11,504 | RD |
| Scarborough Southwest | 58.0% | 29,399 | RD |
| Don Valley West | 57.8% | 45,697 | RD |
| Etobicoke-Lakeshore | 54.3% | 44,791 | RD |
| Don Valley East | 46.8% | 15,115 | RD |
| Scarborough North | 41.7% | 15,502 | RD |
| Etobicoke North | 39.5% | 16,384 | RD |
| York South-Weston | 37.4% | 24,249 | RD |
| Beaches-East York | 31.6% | 45,178 | R |
| Toronto-St. Paul's | 29.4% | 43,516 | R |
| Humber River-Black Creek | 20.9% | 12,515 | RM |
| University-Rosedale | 14.4% | 60,427 | R |
| Parkdale-High Park | 12.8% | 40,386 | R |
| Toronto-Danforth | 10.8% | 51,158 | R |
| Toronto Centre | 0.0% | 34,714 | CR |
| Spadina-Fort York | 0.0% | 44,997 | CR |
| Davenport | 0.0% | 38,072 | R |
How this is measured, and what it is not
The City publishes the zoning map as 11,719 polygons. Each of this site’s address points is tested against them, and a permit takes the zone of the address it was already matched to. 758,632 of 997,873 permits land inside a zone; the rest are permits whose address could not be matched in the first place, plus a small number on land the by-law does not cover.
This is a count of permits, not of land. A neighbourhood at 99% RD has 99% of its permit activity in detached zones, which is not the same as 99% of its area, and a busy apartment tower can file more permits than a street of houses. Read it as where the building work happens under which rules, not as a land-use survey.
Zoning also changes. This is a snapshot of the by-law as the City last published it, with amendments to June 2023 plus later refreshes, against permits going back to 2000 — so an old permit is shown against today’s zone, not the zone that applied when it was issued. Sites under appeal are included as the City ships them. Land the City flags as outside By-law 569-2013 is excluded.
Whether a specific project is allowed on a specific lot is not a question this data answers: exceptions, overlays and minor variances all bear on it. The Committee of Adjustment is where the exceptions get decided, and the City’s own by-law pages are the authority. Source and caveats: method.