Author name: Jatin Dua

A quarter of Markland Wood sits inside an Official Plan policy area where new residential development is prohibited, and it reaches Bloor Street West. The golf course is zoned OG, where no residential use of any kind is permitted, and has no development application of any kind on file. There is no Major Transit Station Area anywhere here. And the City has authorised construction traffic control at Renforth until 31 March 2031.

Baby Point became a heritage conservation district on 18 December 2024 and the by-law is registered on title. Pulling a tree stump there now needs a heritage permit. Bloor West Village was studied for a heritage district for eight years and then failed a provincial arithmetic test. And the City’s own Official Plan PDF still prints a policy that was repealed in September 2025.

The City has no neighbourhood called Sunnylea. Old Mill has the lowest minimum density target of all 120 Minister-approved station areas because 62.7 per cent of it is park, cemetery and river. There is a live 39-storey application against a mapped 14-metre height limit. And on 272 addresses the zoning caps the whole house at 185 square metres.

The City has recommended a Heritage Conservation District over 292 Junction properties. Its own display boards say properties are not protected under the Ontario Heritage Act until the HCD Plan is adopted, and the Plan has not been written. Meanwhile Humberside Collegiate runs at 133 per cent of capacity, and 178 development files sit on the City’s books in and around the neighbourhood.

In the ravine by-law there is no such thing as a small tree: a permit is required for any tree of any size, and the fine runs from $500 to $100,000 each. A ravine permit also needs a geotechnical slope-stability report before you get anywhere near a building permit. And the heritage study for Bloor West Village was completed years ago – the district was never designated.

Roncesvalles is one of the few parts of Toronto where a detached house can legally become a sixplex, because of a by-law passed on 26 June 2025 that most of the city did not get. The main street itself is capped at 16 metres. The local collegiate is at 133 per cent of capacity and four of the five nearest elementary schools are closed to out-of-area students.