Council Update – Permitting Sixplexes Downtown, and Monitoring Multiplexes City-wide

Sixplexes are now only permitted in downtown Toronto + Ward 23 (Scarborough North).

At the Council meeting on June 25–26th, 2025, City Council reviewed recommendations from City Planning to permit up to 6 residential units on properties zoned as “Neighbourhoods.” Previously, up to 4 residential units were permitted.

While I heard from residents who supported permitting sixplexes, many residents and resident associations shared significant concerns about the changes, including the potential to:

• Increase basement flooding,

• Decrease our tree canopy,

• Impact access to street parking locally, and

• Incentivize lot splitting (splitting one property into two, to build a total of 12 units).

After a heated debate, City Council voted to amend the recommendations so that they will only apply to the Toronto & East York District (downtown Toronto), and in Ward 23 (Scarborough North). I voted in support of those changes.

This means that sixplexes will not be permitted as-of-right in Ward 3.

I believe sixplexes may have a place in our housing mix in Etobicoke-Lakeshore in the future. We already have sixplexes in some of our neighbourhoods – but those are on larger lots and different from what was proposed at City Council.

Highlights from the monitoring program for the current multiplex permissions (up to four units)

At this City Council meeting, City Planning also shared an update on the existing city-wide multiplex permissions for up to four units.

Since adopting fourplex permissions in May 2023, City Planning identified 452 building permits for multiplexes issued city-wide, of which 108 have been constructed. Of these 452 building permits, City Planning conducted a “detailed review” for the first 222 and “high-level review” for the remaining 230.

Highlights include:

• We are seeing a healthy mix of duplexes (40%), triplexes (35%), and fourplexes (25%).

• Multiplexes are providing large units, with an average unit size of about 1140 square feet (106 square metres).

• Multiplexes are delivering family sized (2 and 3 bedrooms) units at a greater rate than we see in condo development.

• The majority of multiplexes (67%) are providing some amount of onsite parking, with most multiplexes that do not provide onsite parking being located close to major transit stations.

• The majority of multiplex building permits have been for renovations or retrofits, and not for entirely new house construction.

• While new units are typically not defined as “affordable housing”, City Planning found that multiplex housing appears to be less expensive than the City of Toronto condo market, on a per square foot basis.

• Multiplex construction is having minimal impact on property values.

I encourage you to read the report and review the supporting information and graphics yourself.

I continue to support the existing multiplex program.

We are in a housing supply and affordability crisis. While multiplexes are not a quick fix to this crisis, multiplexes and similar types of “gentle densification” in neighbourhoods are one piece of the solution.

Development and new housing in Toronto has, for a long time, primarily been through towers or detached neighbourhoods – sometimes referred to as “tall and sprawl.” Development forms like multiplexes, garden suites, townhomes, and low-rise apartment buildings have been far less common in our housing mix, and were often not permitted by previous zoning bylaws.

This is what we call the “Missing Middle.” The historical approach has negatively impacted neighbourhoods across the city by:

• Creating a lack of housing mix options for current or potential new residents,

• Developing a city structure where residents must travel further distances to access work, services, stores, and other amenities,

• Encouraging reliance on travelling by car, and making choosing active transportation options more difficult, and

• Removing or decreasing opportunities for small, local retail.

While many of these new housing units are market rate housing (not “affordable housing”) they will provide some relief to our extremely difficult rental and ownership markets and introduce a new type of housing to our neighbourhoods via gentle densification that fits.

Multiplexes (up to four units) will provide a wider range of residents the opportunity to live in Etobicoke-Lakeshore. This isn’t just about new people moving into neighbourhoods – it’s about creating space for those who are already here to grow and change in their own community, without the fear of being priced out. For example, a child who is looking to move out of their parents home and find a place of their own may be more able to find an appropriately sized unit close by, or a senior who is currently over-housed and looking to age in place may be able to find a right-sized option in the neighbourhood where they are familiar and comfortable.

I believe the reporting on the fourplex permissions show an overall positive picture of incremental change. However, there is always room for improvement.

Based on feedback I’ve heard from residents, I successfully passed 2 motions at City Council to ensure that:

1. The multiplex monitoring program will now also track lot sizes, lot widths, and consent applications associated with multiplexes.

2. In Q4 2025, a scheduled report back from Toronto Water and City Planning on multiplex impact will now also factor in historical flooding data and studies such as the City’s Basement Flooding Protection Program studies, and identify neighbourhoods where reduction of permeable surface area presents greater risk of flooding.