R zone, Toronto: Residential Zone (R)

What the R zone permits

• Dwelling unit in a permitted residential building type: detached house, semi-detached house, townhouse, duplex, triplex, fourplex, apartment building (10.10.20.40)
• Municipal shelter
• Park
• With conditions (10.10.20.100): ambulance depot, fire hall, police station (1)
• With conditions: cogeneration energy production, renewable energy production (2)
• With conditions: community centre, library (3)
• With conditions: day nursery (4, Section 150.45)
• With conditions: group home (5, Section 150.15)
• With conditions: home occupation (6, Section 150.5)
• With conditions: place of worship (8, Section 150.50; under appeal, not in force)
• With conditions: private home daycare (9)
• With conditions: public utility (10, 11)
• With conditions: retail store in an apartment building (12)
• With conditions: multi-tenant house (13, Section 150.25)
• With conditions: secondary suite (14, Section 150.10)
• With conditions: seniors community house (15, Section 150.30)
• With conditions: tourist home (16)
• With conditions: transportation use (17)
• With conditions: short-term rental (18, Section 150.13)
• With conditions: laneway suite (19, Section 150.8)
• With conditions: garden suite (20, Section 150.7)

Standards

Other provisions in this section

• Maximum one residential building per lot; more than one townhouse or apartment building (or combination) is permitted on a lot abutting a major street (10.10.40.1(2)).
• A building with dwelling units may not be located in the rear of another building (or the original part of the same building), nor placed in front so as to create that condition; does not apply to townhouses/apartments on a lot abutting a major street (10.10.40.1(5)).
• Main wall height (residential buildings other than apartment buildings): maximum is the higher of 7.0 m above established grade or 2.5 m less than the permitted maximum height, applied either to all side main walls for at least 70% of their width, or to all front and rear main walls for at least 60% (lot frontage 12.0 m or more), 50% (frontage greater than 7.5 m and less than 12.0 m) or 40% (frontage 7.5 m or less) of their width; not applicable to townhouses on a lot abutting a major street (10.10.40.10(2)).
• Flat or shallow roofs (slope less than 1:10 over more than 50% of roof area): additional main walls may be built above the main-wall height limit if set back at least 1.4 m from the front and rear main walls below (10.10.40.10(11) duplex/triplex/fourplex; (12) other residential buildings except apartments).
• Roof above the second storey or higher on a detached house may not slope more than 5.0 vertical : 3.0 horizontal, including altered roofs on lawfully existing detached houses (10.10.40.10(4), 10.10.40.11(1)).
• Dormer walls are not main walls if in a roof directly above a compliant main wall and their total face width is no more than 40% of the width of the compliant main walls (10.10.40.10(5)).
• Detached or semi-detached house: lowest point of the main pedestrian entrance in the front or side main wall may be no higher than 1.2 m above established grade (10.10.40.10(6)).
• Floor levels in a rear addition may not be higher than the uppermost floor level of the existing building (10.10.40.10(7)).
• On a building taller than 15.0 m, antennae, flagpoles and satellite dishes may exceed the maximum height by 5.0 m (10.10.40.10(8)); on a tower (storey above 24.0 m, average floor plate above 24.0 m not exceeding 750 m2), rooftop equipment covering no more than 450 m2 may exceed the height by 6.5 m, and chimneys, pipes and vents by a further 3.0 m (10.10.40.10(10)).
• Maximum building length on a lot abutting a major street: 19.0 m for a townhouse, 25.0 m for an apartment building (10.10.40.20).
• Maximum building depth: 17.0 m for all permitted residential building types; 19.0 m for a duplex/triplex/fourplex (and for an apartment building 13.0 m or less in height, if side main walls with primary windows are at least 5.5 m from an interior side lot line) where the lot depth is 36.0 m or more with frontage under 10.0 m, or lot depth 40.0 m or more with frontage 10.0 m or more; no maximum depth for townhouses/apartments on a lot abutting a major street (10.10.40.30).
• Exterior sides of a lawfully existing platform enclosed under former City of Toronto By-law 438-86 are not main walls (10.10.40.50).
• A lawfully existing porch may be reconstructed or replaced within its same outer limits without enlargement, despite 10.5.40.50(2) and 10.5.40.60(1)(A) (10.10.40.61).
• Setbacks in 10.5.40.70(1) and 10.10.40.70(1)-(4) do not apply to a transportation use along Eglinton Avenue West/East provided setbacks are between 0 and 10.5 m (10.10.40.71).
• Separation between facing main walls of the same townhouse or apartment building: 2.0 m if neither wall has openings to dwelling units, 5.5 m if one wall has no openings, 11.0 m if both have openings (10.10.40.80(1)); between separate townhouses/apartments on the same lot abutting a major street: 5.5 m if one or more walls have no openings, 11.0 m if each has an opening (10.10.40.80(2)). Lawfully existing lesser separations are grandfathered; additions must comply or obtain a minor variance (10.10.40.81).
• Ancillary building containing a parking space (detached garage): minimum 1.0 m from a rear or side lot line abutting a street or lane (subject to 10.5.60.20(4)); no minimum setback from a rear or side lot line not abutting a street or lane (10.10.60.20).
• Ancillary buildings and structures may cover no more than 5% of the lot area, excluding the water surface of a swimming pool (per 10.5.60.70(2)) and ancillary buildings containing parking spaces up to one parking space per dwelling unit (10.10.60.70).
• A parking space inside a detached, semi-detached or townhouse (not an ancillary building) may be converted to habitable space with no replacement parking if the lot frontage is 7.6 m or less (or greater than 7.6 m with the vehicle entrance floor below grade), the vehicle entrance is in the front main wall, and the driveway is removed and any front-yard depression filled (10.10.80.1).
• A vehicle entrance through the front main wall is not permitted on a lot with a lot frontage of 7.6 m or less (10.10.80.40(1)).
• On a corner lot or a lot abutting a lane, vehicle access to parking must be from the flanking street or the lane (10.10.80.40(2)).
• No parking space is required where access to a side- or rear-yard parking space cannot be provided from a lane or flanking street and either the lot frontage is 7.6 m or less with a deed registered on or before July 2, 1996 and a house/duplex/triplex/townhouse unit erected after that date, or the lot results from a first-time severance into at most three lots each with one dwelling unit and frontage 7.6 m or less (10.10.80.200).
• Retail store in an apartment building: only in a building with 100 or more units, one store only, not above the first storey, access from inside the building unless the lot abuts a major street, no outdoor display, interior floor area maximum 25.0 m2 for the first 100 units plus 5.0 m2 per additional 100 units to a maximum of 70.0 m2 (10.10.20.100(12)).
• Ambulance depot, fire hall or police station must be on a lot fronting a major street, or on a street intersecting a major street within 250 m of the intersection (10.10.20.100(1)).
• Place of worship (provision under appeal, not in force): must comply with Section 150.50, be on a lot with frontage of at least 30 m, and be in a building originally built as a place of worship (10.10.20.100(8)).
• Private home daycare play area must be fenced and not in the front yard or a side yard abutting a street (10.10.20.100(9)).
• Public utility may not be a sewage treatment plant, water filtration plant or above-ground water reservoir; hydro transformer and natural gas regulator stations must be enclosed and meet the zone's lot coverage, setback and height rules (10.10.20.100(10),(11)).
• Tourist home must be in a detached, semi-detached or townhouse, with at most 2 bed-sitting rooms, and no vehicle access by a mutual driveway (10.10.20.100(16)).
• Cogeneration/renewable energy production must be combined with another permitted use on the lot (10.10.20.100(2)); community centre or library must be operated by or for the City of Toronto (10.10.20.100(3)).
• Duplex, triplex, fourplex, townhouse or apartment building is permitted despite Chapter 900 regulations 900.1.10(3) and (4)(A) if it complies with the R zone rules or is authorized by a Section 45 minor variance (10.10.20.40(2)).
• Conversions: a detached house lawfully built before December 15, 2023 may be converted to an apartment building, and a portion of a semi-detached house to more than four units, if the added units are entirely within the existing building; additions must comply with the by-law or obtain a minor variance; unit-count regulations 10.5.1.10(3) and 10.10.40.1(3) do not apply to such conversions; no secondary suite in a converted semi-detached portion (10.10.20.41).
• Ancillary buildings and structures are also subject to Article 10.5.60; category-wide rules in Section 10.5 and Chapter 5 apply (10.10.40.1(1), 10.10.60.1).