Minister Approves First Wave of City of Toronto Changes to Employment Lands
By Nikolas Koschany, Michael Cook, and Grace O’Brien
On December 12, 2023, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing (the “Minister”) approved City of Toronto (the “City”) Official Plan Amendment 591 (“OPA 591”). Initially adopted by City Council in July 2022, the Minister approved OPA 591 without any modifications. OPA 591 amends Employment Area policies within Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Toronto Official Plan and approves 24 employment land conversion requests through amendments to Maps 13 to 23 of the Official Plan. OPA 591 can be read it its entirety here.
OPA 591: Key Changes
The approval of OPA 591 by the Minister signifies a shift in Toronto’s approach to managing its Employment Areas. Here’s what you need to know:
- Minimum Job Targets. For the first time, and as required by the Growth Plan, Toronto has established minimum job targets in Employment Areas. New policy 2.2.4.19 stipulates that all Employment Areas “will be planned for a minimum of 50 jobs per gross hectare.” These targets will be monitored and evaluated in preparation for the next Municipal Comprehensive Review.
- Ban on Residential Uses. The City also introduced policy 4.6.7, which explicitly prohibits Residential Uses in all parts of Employment Areas.
- Core vs General Employment Areas. Non-policy text has been added to Section 4.6 of the Toronto Official Plan to clarify that there is no hierarchy of importance or priority between Core and General Employment Areas.
- Approval of 24 Conversion Requests. OPA 591 approves 24 employment land conversion requests, primarily for mixed-use development.
Next Steps
Since the employment lands review commenced in 2020, the City has received over 150 conversion requests and adopted two other Official Plan Amendments (“OPAs”) to implement some of these requests: OPA 644 and OPA 653. OPA 644 was adopted by City Council on June 18, 2023 and proposes five employment conversions. Notably, three of these conversions would remain employment lands, going from Core to General Employment Area. OPA 644 was posted on the Environmental Registry of Ontario (“ERO”) for comment on December 13, 2023 here. OPA 653 was adopted by City Council on September 6, 2023 and proposes 36 employment conversions. It was posted on the ERO for comment on December 13 here. Similar to OPA 644, three of these conversions would remain employment lands but the lands would be converted to Geneal Employment Area.
As the comment period is scheduled to close on February 11, 2024, we may see additional employment conversions approved in the new year. Should you have any questions about OPA 591 or development within the City’s Employment Areas, please contact any member of our land development team.