Top 10 things no one will tell you about High Park and Swansea — except your local real estate expert

Published 31 August 2026. Written by Jatin Dua, Broker of Record at RE/MAX Quantum Realty, 799 The Queensway, Etobicoke. Every claim below is quoted from a City of Toronto by-law, Council item, project page or open dataset, or from a TRCA, TTC, TDSB or MPAC document, named and dated, and read on 31 August 2026. Where a figure is my own arithmetic from official data rather than a published statistic, I say so. Where a document is silent or two documents disagree, this page says so instead of guessing.

High Park is 399 acres, about two-thirds of it still in a natural state, and it contains roughly 23 hectares of black oak savannah — the City calls it the most significant area of tallgrass savannah, prairie and woodland in Toronto, a globally rare ecosystem with less than three per cent of it left after European settlement. That is the reason people buy here, and it is also the reason the rules on the land around it are unlike the rules anywhere else in the city.

One geographic note before the list, because it changes every number. What people call High Park and Swansea is two City neighbourhoods, not one: High Park-Swansea is neighbourhood 87 and High Park North is neighbourhood 88. They have almost the same population and they are close to opposites on tenure. Where I quote census figures below, I name which one they belong to.

1In the ravine by-law there is no such thing as a small tree

Toronto has two tree by-laws, and this is one of the few parts of the city where the difference between them decides what you can do with your own back garden.

	Private Tree By-law, Municipal Code Chapter 813	Ravine and Natural Feature Protection, Chapter 658
What triggers a permit	A tree with at least one stem of 30 centimetres diameter or more, measured 1.4 metres above ground level	Any tree regardless of size, plus excavation, fill, grading, dumping, and constructing structures or retaining walls
Where it applies	Private land across the city	Land shown as a shaded “protected area” on a Data Map in Schedule A-2
Fine for injuring or destroying a tree	$500 minimum, $100,000 maximum per tree, plus a possible special fine of $100,000	$500 minimum, $100,000 maximum per tree
Other violations	—	$500 to $100,000, and $500 to $10,000 per day for a continuing offence
Overlap	Section 813-13 exempts trees in ravine protection areas from Chapter 813, because Chapter 658 governs them instead

Section 658-2 requires a permit to “injure, destroy, remove or permit the injury, destruction or removal of any tree on any land in a protected area,” and separately to place or dump fill or refuse, or to alter the grade of land. Section 658-1 defines a protected area to take in ravines with a minimum two-metre elevation change and a history of water flow, tableland forests, treed portions of the Lake Iroquois shoreline, and valley-located public parks. The City’s own permit guidance puts the trigger in one line: “Harming or removing any tree regardless of size.”

The exemptions are narrow. Chapter 658 exempts dead, diseased or hazardous trees certified by the General Manager, standard arboricultural pruning, utility line pruning, fruit tree removal for production, certified emergency work, and fill under five cubic metres for turf maintenance. Chapter 813 exempts terminally diseased and imminently hazardous trees, pruning for tree health, and trees in rooftop gardens with soil depth under 1.5 metres. Under section 813-20 a replacement tree must be “planted and maintained in good condition for a period of two years,” and where you cannot replant on site, the cash in lieu is 120 per cent of the cost of replanting. City street trees are protected at any size.

Here is how to check a specific address, and it takes five minutes. Open the City’s mapping tool at map.toronto.ca/torontomaps, enter the address, and tick the Ravine and Natural Feature Protection By-law box under Boundaries. Protected areas appear as striped layers. I will tell you plainly that I could not query that map programmatically to produce a street list, so I am not going to tell you which Swansea or High Park streets are captured. Check the address, not the reputation of the street.

2A ravine permit needs a geotechnical slope-stability report, and TRCA is a second approval on top of it

This is the single most under-reported cost of owning a valley lot in Swansea or High Park, and it sits in the City’s own application instructions.

To apply for a Ravine and Natural Feature Protection permit for proposed construction, the City requires all of the following:

Required with a ravine permit application	Detail
Zoning notice	Recent notice for the proposed construction
Plan of survey	Showing the limits of the RNFP area on the property
Site plan	Existing and proposed buildings and structures, “including decks and underground foundation extensions”
Arborist report	Covering trees within 12 metres of construction activity
Landscape and forest restoration plans	Hard and soft landscaping
Grading plans	Scale drawings, metric, with title, date, north arrow and municipal address
Geotechnical report	“Geotechnical report addressing soil conditions and slope stability,” plus drainage and sediment control measures
Financial securities	Tree planting guarantees at $583 per tree, being 120 per cent of two-year maintenance costs; City tree protection guarantees appraised by diameter, species, condition and location

Now the second layer. Separately and in addition, a property that includes or adjoins a watercourse, a valley, a wetland, a shoreline or hazardous land such as a steep slope or flood plain sits in a TRCA regulated area, governed by Ontario Regulation 41/24 under the Conservation Authorities Act. A TRCA permit is required for a new or replacement home, a home addition, a garage, shed, deck or pool, landscaping, the “placing or excavation of fill,” interference with a wetland, and alterations to a shoreline or watercourse. Section 5 of the regulation lists the exemptions. TRCA warns in its own words that “flood plains, in particular, are not always apparent.”

Two honest gaps. The City does not publish a processing timeline for ravine permits on the page I read, so I am not going to invent one. And I could not retrieve the operative text of Ontario Regulation 41/24 giving the regulated distances in metres from a wetland or from the stable top of a slope, so I am not going to print a setback figure. Use TRCA’s own regulated area search tool for the address, and if the answer matters, ask TRCA directly before you waive a condition.

3High Park is closed to private cars every weekend, and the road work runs into 2028

The High Park Movement Strategy is a City study with a stated destination. It “takes a phased approach to improving how park visitors access and move around High Park, with a long-term goal of achieving a car-free High Park.” An interim report went to the Infrastructure and Environment Committee on 11 May 2022 as item 2022.IE30.16, and City Council approved the Strategy in May 2023 as item 2023.IE3.7.

What is already in force, since August 2023: private vehicles are prohibited in the park on weekends and statutory holidays; the Bloor Street gates are exit-only for private vehicles, with entry via Parkside Drive, Spring Road and Colborne Lodge Drive; and car traffic on Colborne Lodge Drive is one-way. The TTC 203 High Park Loop runs 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., with weekend and holiday service from 15 March to 31 October and weekday service from 4 May to 4 September. Wheel-Trans operates year-round. A recreational cycling pilot proposed in 2024 was placed on hold pending an ecological study by TRCA; CampTO Plus cycling launched in summer 2025 and continues in summer 2026. The separate High Park Shuttle ran in May 2025 and was replaced by TTC service.

What happens next, on the City’s published schedule	When
Online survey	1 to 21 April 2026
Virtual public meeting, road redesign phase 2	7 April 2026
Preliminary roadworks: curb realignment and asphalt removal on Colborne Lodge Drive and West Road	Early July to early September 2026
Detailed design	Fall 2026 to winter 2027
Construction	Summer 2027 to summer 2028
Report back to Council	By 2027

Then there is the fortnight nobody plans for. During cherry blossom peak bloom the City states there is “no visitor vehicle or parking access to High Park,” and that “only Wheel-Trans vehicles and TTC buses will be allowed into High Park during peak bloom.” The City publishes no fixed dates and directs people to the High Park Nature Centre’s Blossom Watch instead. Peak bloom is described as late April or early May, and the blossoms “typically last between four to 10 days, depending on weather conditions.” There are about 50 trees, planted in 2017 and 2018, mostly on the east side of Grenadier Pond.

One thing I am not going to tell you: what happens to the parking supply. The City’s own study page carries two statements that do not sit together — a conversion of spaces on Colborne Lodge Road and West Road to a parallel configuration, and a statement that there will be no reduction or reallocation of existing parking spaces. One of them is almost certainly scoped to a particular phase. Until that is resolved on the page, a parking count from me would be a guess.

4The heritage study for Bloor West Village was finished. The district was never designated

This is the cleanest example on the page of a document that exists and a protection that does not.

The City lists exactly four entries under Heritage Conservation District Studies Completed: Bloor West Village, Casa Loma, the Distillery District and Weston II. Bloor West Village is not among Toronto’s 27 designated Heritage Conservation Districts. It is not on the list of districts in development, which is Junction Phase I and West Annex Phase II. It is not under appeal, which is West Queen West. It is a completed study with no designation and no linked plan document. The study was initiated in Fall 2017, with a study area described as bounded by High Park to the east and the Humber River to the west, and findings to be presented to the Toronto Preservation Board aligned with the Avenue Study timeline.

For contrast, look one neighbourhood west. The Heritage Register in this part of the city is numerically dominated by Baby Point — 112 records on Baby Point Road, 62 on Baby Point Crescent and 10 on Baby Point Terrace in the City’s open dataset. That is what a designated district looks like in the data. Bloor West Village does not look like that.

What buyers here actually have is a Heritage Register listing, which is not the same thing. The City states it plainly: “Being listed on the Heritage Register is not the same thing as being a designated heritage property.” A listed property means the owner must give the City 60 days’ notice before demolition, and listing does not restrict renovations, alterations that do not need a building permit, or development. A designated property has a by-law registered on title and must comply with heritage conservation requirements for alterations and development. Bill 23 amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act also gave Toronto’s Chief Planner limited authority to add listed properties to the Register without Toronto Preservation Board review, where they meet provincial criteria and are subject to a planning application.

From the City’s Heritage Register open data, dated 4 June 2026, here is what that means on the ground:

Address	Status	On the register since	Built	Description in the dataset
1778, 1908, 1914, 1920 and 1926 Bloor St W	Listed	5 February 2025	c.1928–1930	“Identified within the Bloor West Village study area”
2223 Bloor St W	Part IV designated	1989	1927–28	Runnymede Theatre, Chapman and Oxley — By-law 97-90, designated 29 January 1990
2178 Bloor St W	Listed	1975	1929	Runnymede Branch, Toronto Public Library, John M. Lyle
210 Riverside Dr	Listed	1979	c.1935	“Journey’s End”, L.M. Montgomery House
4 and 8 South Kingsway	Part IV designated	1998	1750–51	Site of Fort Toronto and the Jean Rousseau trade post — By-law 801-98
83 Deforest Rd	Listed	1987	1930	Swansea Fire Hall, Robert McGiffin
95 Lavinia Ave	Listed	1987	1960	Swansea’s municipal building, N.A. Armstrong
166 High Park Ave	Part IV designated	1973	1891	Herman Heintzman House — By-law 838-86
11 Colborne Lodge Dr	Listed	1973	1836	J.G. Howard House, Colborne Lodge

5Six units, not four, if the by-law schedule reaches your lot

Almost every article you will read about Toronto small-scale housing says four units. In this part of the city the number Council actually enabled is six.

Permission	Council decision	By-laws	In force	Scope
Multiplex, 2 to 4 units	10 May 2023, item 2023.PH3.16	OPA law0473 (2023); ZBA law0474 (2023)	Zoning 12 May 2023; Official Plan 14 June 2023	City-wide
Residential buildings of up to six units	25 to 26 June 2025	OPA law0653 (2025); ZBA law0654 (2025); monitoring by-law law0648 (2025)	The City states the amendments “are now in force”	Toronto and East York District, and Ward 23 only — not city-wide
Garden suite, one per property	2 February 2022; amendments 24 June 2025, item PH23.1	OPA By-law 0100-2022; ZBA By-law 0101-2022	2 February 2022, with one property-specific appeal maintained	Most residential zones; Ontario Regulation 462/24 in force 20 November 2024 affects some garden suite regulations

High Park-Swansea and High Park North sit in Toronto and East York District, which is the district the six-unit amendments name. A Sixplexes Citywide Study is under way to consider extending it. I will add the caveat I would give a client: confirm the by-law schedule against your specific lot before you pay for drawings, because a district boundary in a zoning by-law is a mapped line, not a neighbourhood name.

6What is actually approved around the park, in file numbers

The City’s development application data records every open file. Note one quirk before you read it: the dataset still uses legacy “OMB Appeal” and “OMB Approved” labels, and those now mean the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Address	Proposal	File	Submitted	Status
21 Windermere Ave	35 and 20 storeys, 639 units, including rent-geared-to-income rental replacement	26 164282 STE 04 SA	21 May 2026	Under review
26–36 Mountview Ave and 21–29 Oakmount Rd	41 and 39 storeys, 873 units, 11 rental replacement	25 222465 STE 04 OZ	9 September 2025	Appeal received
35–95 High Park Ave and 66–102 Pacific Ave	35, 11 and 30 storeys, 764 rental units	20 210125 STE 04 SA	23 October 2020	Notice of approval conditions issued
111 Pacific Ave	32 and 25 storeys plus townhouses	20 206487 STE 04 SA	14 October 2020	Notice of approval conditions issued
1730 Bloor St W	25 storeys, 200 units	25 217120 STE 04 OZ	27 August 2025	Council approved
1728 Bloor St W	19 storeys, 89 units rising to 99 in the later file	23 119823 STE 04 OZ	3 March 2023	Tribunal approved
1930–1938 Bloor St W and 3–21 Quebec Ave	19 storeys, 144 units, 12 rental replacement	24 121126 STE 04 OZ	1 March 2024	Tribunal approved
2273–2279 Bloor St W	15 storeys, 60 units	25 269621 STE 04 OZ	24 December 2025	Council approved
2453–2469 Bloor St W	12 storeys, 91 units	23 181154 STE 04 OZ	28 July 2023	Tribunal approved
1978 Lake Shore Blvd W	698 units	22 138558 STE 04 SA	26 April 2022	Under review

Those eight files with published unit counts total 2,870 homes within a short walk of the park, before you count 111 Pacific or the Dundas Street West corridor behind it. On Dundas, the largest single file is 2252–2290 Dundas Street West: six buildings, about 2,312 units of which 1,156 are rental, plus a 3,405 square metre public park, submitted 13 July 2022 and still under review. At 2400–2440 Dundas Street West, phase one is a 37-storey building with 447 rental units and phase two is 42 and 25 storeys with 56 affordable rental units and a new public park.

7There is a City flood study area that names South Kingsway, and a subsidy that pays 80 per cent

The City’s Basement Flooding Protection Program is “a multi-year program helping to reduce the risk of flooding by making improvements to the sewer system and overland drainage routes.” Between 2006 and 2024 the City completed Environmental Assessment studies in 67 areas. Three of them cover this geography:

Study area	Name	Wards covered	Completed
4	Jane Street / St. Clair Avenue West	Parkdale-High Park, York South-Weston	2014
5	Humber River / Bloor Street West	Parkdale-High Park	2014
49	Islington-Bloor, Park Lawn, South Kingsway	Etobicoke Centre, Etobicoke-Lakeshore, Parkdale-High Park	2022

Study Area 49 is the one that names South Kingsway and Park Lawn, which is to say Swansea. That is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to use the subsidy, which most owners here do not know exists. For work completed on or after 12 November 2025, the City’s Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy Program pays:

Measure	Subsidy
Backwater valve	Up to 80 per cent of invoiced cost, maximum $1,600 per device, maximum two devices
Sump pump	Up to 80 per cent, maximum $2,250, plus up to $300 for a battery backup
Severance and capping of a storm sewer or weeping tile connection	Up to 80 per cent, maximum $400
Overall maximum per property	$6,650

The conditions are specific. You must be the registered owner of a single-family, duplex, triplex or fourplex in Toronto; downspouts must be disconnected from the sewer or hold a City exemption; front-yard paving must comply with zoning; your contractor must hold a valid Toronto business licence; you must apply within two years of installation; and you must have no outstanding taxes or debts to the City. A building permit is required for a backwater valve installation.

8More than half the houses in High Park-Swansea were built in 1960 or earlier

From the City’s Neighbourhood Profiles, 2021 Census, 158-neighbourhood model, for the two neighbourhoods people mean when they say High Park:

Indicator	High Park-Swansea (87)	High Park North (88)
Population in private households	22,665	21,855
Occupied private dwellings	10,450	11,100
Owner households	6,245 (59.8%)	3,710 (33.4%)
Renter households	4,210 (40.3%)	7,390 (66.6%)
Median household total income, 2020	$101,000	$83,000
Median value of dwellings	$1,200,000	$1,300,000
Average value of dwellings	$1,424,000	$1,354,000
Median monthly shelter cost, owned	$1,820	$1,700
Tenant households spending 30 per cent or more of income on shelter	38.0%	41.6%
Dwellings needing major repairs	710	910
Median age	40.8	39.2

And the two facts that matter most for a renovation budget, from the same profile:

Period of construction	High Park-Swansea	High Park North
1960 or before	5,625 (53.8%)	4,195 (37.8%)
1961 to 1980	1,800	4,385 (39.5%)
1981 to 1990	540	660
1991 to 2000	390	405
2001 to 2005	235	230
2006 to 2010	595	255
2011 to 2015	1,065	380
2016 to 2021	200	595

On the structural type counts, single-detached houses are 2,640 of 10,450 dwellings in High Park-Swansea, about 25 per cent, and apartments in buildings of five or more storeys are 3,415, about 33 per cent. In High Park North the same apartment category is 6,620 of 11,100, about 60 per cent, against 1,385 single-detached houses. That is the whole story of the two neighbourhoods in four numbers: one is a detached-and-lowrise owner market with a large apartment edge, the other is a tower market with a detached pocket inside it.

9The stretch of Gardiner in front of Swansea is the one with no schedule

The City divides the Gardiner Expressway Rehabilitation Strategy into six sections. Five of them have a status. One does not.

Section	Status
Jarvis St to Cherry St	Complete, 2021, using accelerated bridge construction with pre-fabricated sections
Dufferin St to Strachan Ave	Complete, 2026; the elevated portion replaced
Highway 427 to the Humber River	In progress: reconstruction of 6.5 kilometres of at-grade expressway and rehabilitation of 15 bridges, early work focused on the Park Lawn Road and Mimico Creek bridges
Grand Magazine St to York St	Not yet started; two kilometres of elevated section to be replaced
Cherry St to the Don Valley Parkway	Partially under way; alignment shifts northward, coordinated with the Ontario Line and Port Lands
Humber River to Dufferin St	“Pending an engineering evaluation”

The last row is the stretch that fronts Swansea and Humber Bay, and it is the only one of the six with no committed schedule. The active western work is the Highway 427 to Humber River section, which includes the Park Lawn Road bridge.

I could not find published construction dates, lane closures or completion years for either the western section or the Humber-to-Dufferin section, so I am not going to print any. I also want to be straight about a claim you will see repeated in neighbourhood write-ups: that Lake Shore Boulevard and the Gardiner cut Swansea off from the waterfront. I found no City document that says that. It may be your experience of the walk. It is not a documented City finding, and I am not going to dress it up as one.

10The land transfer tax brackets changed on 1 April 2026, and the Municipal Code has not caught up

On a neighbourhood where the median dwelling value in the 2021 Census was already $1.2 million, the closing costs are a real number. Toronto’s Municipal Land Transfer Tax gained new graduated brackets for properties containing one or two single-family residences, effective 1 April 2026. The City’s own wording: “On December 17, 2025 City Council passed an amendment to introduce graduated Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates for high-value residential properties containing one or two single-family residences. The new MLTT rates will take effect on April 1, 2026.” The Council item is 2025.EX28.1, adopted with amendments on 16 and 17 December 2025.

Value of consideration	Rate from 1 April 2026
Up to $55,000	0.5%
$55,000.01 to $250,000	1.0%
$250,000.01 to $400,000	1.5%
$400,000.01 to $2,000,000	2.0%
$2,000,000.01 to $3,000,000	2.5%
$3,000,000.01 to $4,000,000	4.40%
$4,000,000.01 to $5,000,000	5.45%
$5,000,000.01 to $10,000,000	6.50%
$10,000,000.01 to $20,000,000	7.55%
Over $20,000,000	8.60%

All other properties are taxed at 0.5 per cent to $55,000, 1.0 per cent to $250,000, 1.5 per cent to $400,000 and 2.0 per cent above that. The administration fee is $102.56 plus HST per transaction, and an MLTT refund or rebate request costs $221.22. The first-time purchaser rebate is a maximum of $4,475 for conveyances on or after 1 March 2017, under Municipal Code Chapter 760, section 760-60C.

Now the part nobody mentions. As read on 31 August 2026, the consolidated Municipal Code Chapter 760 still publishes the pre-April-2026 table at section 760-9.2A, with 3.5 per cent from $3 million to $4 million and 7.5 per cent above $20 million. The Code consolidation appears not to have caught up with the amendment. Cite the City’s Rates and Fees page and item 2025.EX28.1 for what you will actually pay, and expect to see the old table quoted at you from the Code in the meantime.

Vacant Home Tax rule	What the City states
Rate	3 per cent of Current Value Assessment, as of the 2024 taxation year
Definition	The property “was vacant for six months or more during the taxation year”
No declaration filed	Owners who fail to declare are automatically deemed vacant
Exemptions	Death of a registered owner; principal resident in long-term care; major repairs or renovations preventing occupancy; transfer of legal ownership during the year; court order prohibiting occupancy; newly constructed units actively marketed for sale; medical necessity from 2024
False declaration	“A fine of up to $10,000, in addition to payment of the tax”
Interest on unpaid amounts	1.25 per cent monthly

Two things I will not print. I could not confirm the Municipal Code chapter number for the Vacant Home Tax, so I am not going to cite one. And the declaration deadline for the current year was not stated on the page I read, so check the City’s date before you rely on a number from an article. On assessment, MPAC states only that “due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ontario government has postponed the 2020 Assessment Update.” Which valuation date currently applies is not stated on that page, and I am not going to print one from memory.

Four more, because they come up every week

High Park station only became accessible in March 2025. The TTC’s own project page records “two new elevators, one to each subway platform,” plus improved signage, CCTV, “a new main entrance structure and automatic sliding doors,” and states that “work at High Park Station was completed in March 2025.” Runnymede and Keele were both made accessible earlier, in the 2019 to 2023 tranche of the Easier Access programme. If you are comparing this pocket with Bloor West Village or the Junction on step-free access, all three of your local stations now have it, and that is newer news than most listings suggest.

Optional attendance closes in January, and the status list is not published until November. The TDSB’s out-of-area admissions process for 2027-28 opens on 4 January 2027 and closes at 4:00 p.m. on 22 January 2027. You may apply to one school per application, across regular, remote learning, early French immersion and middle immersion programs. Families must arrange their own transportation, and you must still register at your designated local school as a backup. Schools are graded “Closed,” “Limited (Siblings),” “Limited (Siblings or Feeder School)” or “Limited,” and the board says the 2027-28 statuses will be updated in November 2026. I could not retrieve the current status table for the schools serving High Park and Swansea, so I am not going to tell you which of them are closed. Check the board’s designated-school lookup for the exact address and ask for the status in writing.

Grenadier Pond carries three separate provincial and municipal designations. The City records that “in 2022, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry designated Grenadier Pond as a Provincially Significant Wetland Complex based on a wetland evaluation conducted by the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority,” and the same page identifies it as an Environmentally Significant Area and an Area of Natural and Scientific Interest. Fishing is permitted at the south end only, with a valid Outdoors Card and licence tag, and the City notes that “some bigger fish shouldn’t be eaten due to contaminants.” I could not retrieve any water quality monitoring data for the pond, so there are no numbers on this page about it.

The Bloor West Village Avenue Study finished in December 2025, and the guidelines came out in April 2026. A final staff report and the Bloor West Village Urban Design Guidelines were adopted by City Council on 16 December 2025, and the guidelines document is dated April 2026. The City confirms that a coordinated but separate Bloor Street West Heritage Conservation District Study runs alongside it. I have not read the guidelines end to end, so I am not going to summarise the study boundaries or the height directions for you. If you are buying anything on Bloor between the Humber and High Park, that document is the one to read before you form a view about what goes up across the street.

What this list is not

It is not an argument against buying here. This is a neighbourhood wrapped around a 399-acre park, roughly two-thirds of it still natural, holding about 23 hectares of globally rare black oak savannah and an animal display that has run since 1893 and draws more than 600,000 visitors a year. Three subway stations serve it and all three are now step-free. Nearly 60 per cent of High Park-Swansea households own their homes, the median household income is above the city’s, and the City has completed the flood studies here rather than leaving them in a queue. Very few places in Toronto can say all of that.

The point is that every one of the ten items above is knowable before you sign. Most buyers find out afterwards, usually when an arborist report or a slope-stability report turns up in the middle of a renovation. That is the entire difference between working with someone who has read the by-law and working with someone who has read the listing.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a permit to remove a tree in High Park or Swansea?

Very likely yes. Across Toronto, the private tree by-law in Municipal Code Chapter 813 protects any tree with at least one stem of 30 centimetres diameter measured 1.4 metres above ground. Inside a protected ravine area, Chapter 658 goes much further: a permit is triggered by harming or removing any tree regardless of size. Fines run from a $500 minimum to a $100,000 maximum per tree.

How do I check whether a property is in the ravine protection area?

Use the City’s mapping tool at map.toronto.ca/torontomaps. Enter the address, then tick the Ravine and Natural Feature Protection By-law box under Boundaries. Protected areas show as striped layers. A protected area includes ravines with a minimum two-metre elevation change and a history of water flow, tableland forests, treed portions of the Lake Iroquois shoreline, and valley-located public parks. Check the specific lot, because the layer does not follow street names.

What does a ravine permit application actually require?

More than most buyers expect. The City requires a recent zoning notice, a plan of survey showing the limits of the protected area, a site plan including decks and underground foundation extensions, an arborist report covering trees within 12 metres of construction, landscape and forest restoration plans, grading plans, and a geotechnical report addressing soil conditions and slope stability. Tree planting guarantees are set at $583 per tree.

Do I need a TRCA permit as well as a City permit?

On a valley, wetland, shoreline or steep-slope property, yes, and it is separate. TRCA permits fall under Ontario Regulation 41/24 and cover new or replacement homes, additions, garages, sheds, decks, pools, landscaping, placing or excavating fill, interference with wetlands, and alterations to shorelines and watercourses. Section 5 of the regulation sets out exemptions. TRCA warns that flood plains in particular are not always apparent, so use its regulated area search tool.

Can you drive into High Park?

Not on weekends. Private vehicles have been prohibited in the park on weekends and statutory holidays since August 2023, the Bloor Street gates are exit-only for private vehicles, and Colborne Lodge Drive is one-way. Entry is via Parkside Drive, Spring Road and Colborne Lodge Drive. During cherry blossom peak bloom the City states there is no visitor vehicle or parking access at all, and only Wheel-Trans vehicles and TTC buses are allowed in.

Is Bloor West Village a Heritage Conservation District?

No. The City lists Bloor West Village under Heritage Conservation District Studies Completed, alongside Casa Loma, the Distillery District and Weston II, but it is not one of Toronto’s 27 designated districts, it is not on the in-development list, and it is not under appeal. The study was initiated in Fall 2017. Individual buildings are listed on the Heritage Register, which requires 60 days notice before demolition but does not restrict renovations.

How many units can I build on a lot in High Park or Swansea?

Potentially six. Council enabled multiplexes of two to four units city-wide in May 2023, with the zoning amendment in effect on 12 May 2023. In June 2025 Council adopted amendments allowing residential buildings of up to six units in Toronto and East York District and Ward 23 only, by-laws law0653 and law0654, and the City states these are now in force. High Park and Swansea fall in that district, but confirm the by-law schedule for your lot.

What is being built around High Park right now?

The largest live files include 21 Windermere Avenue at 35 and 20 storeys with 639 units, under review since May 2026, and 26 to 36 Mountview Avenue with 21 to 29 Oakmount Road at 41 and 39 storeys with 873 units, which is under appeal. On Bloor, 1730 Bloor West at 25 storeys and 200 units is Council approved, and 1728, 1930 to 1938 and 2453 to 2469 Bloor West were approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal.

Does Swansea have a basement flooding problem?

The City has studied it. Basement flooding study area 49, named Islington-Bloor, Park Lawn, South Kingsway, was completed in 2022, and study area 5, Humber River and Bloor Street West, was completed in 2014. For work done on or after 12 November 2025 the City subsidises up to 80 per cent of a backwater valve to a maximum of $1,600 per device, a sump pump to $2,250 plus $300 for battery backup, and up to $6,650 per property overall.

How much Toronto land transfer tax will I pay on a High Park house?

From 1 April 2026 the municipal rate on a property with one or two single-family residences is 2.0 per cent between $400,000 and $2 million, 2.5 per cent to $3 million, then 4.40 per cent to $4 million, 5.45 per cent to $5 million and 6.50 per cent to $10 million. There is a $102.56 plus HST administration fee, and a first-time purchaser rebate of up to $4,475. Provincial land transfer tax is charged on top.

Related reading

• Top 10 things no one will tell you about Roncesvalles, Toronto
• Top 10 things no one will tell you about The Kingsway, Etobicoke
• Top 10 things no one will tell you about The Queensway and Stonegate-Queensway
• Top 10 things no one will tell you about Mimico and Humber Bay Shores
• Toronto Municipal Land Transfer Tax: the bracket table from 1 April 2026
• Toronto Vacant Home Tax: the buyer can be left holding it
• Toronto West market report, July 2026

Sources

Every figure on this page traces to one of these, and each was read on 31 August 2026. Primary sources only — a Municipal Code chapter, a Council item, a City project or permit page, a conservation authority, a transit agency, a school board, or a City open dataset. A small number of totals and shares are my own arithmetic from those datasets and are labelled where they appear. Where I could not verify something from a primary source, it is not on the page.

• Municipal Code Chapter 658, Ravine and Natural Feature Protection. City of Toronto. Section 658-2 on the permit requirement for any tree, fill and grade alteration; section 658-1 on the definition of a protected area and the two-metre elevation change; section 658-4 exemptions including fill under five cubic metres; and the section 658-12 penalties of $500 to $100,000 per tree and $500 to $10,000 per day. toronto.ca
• When to Apply For a Tree or Ravine Permit. City of Toronto. The trigger of harming or removing any tree regardless of size, excavation, fill, dumping and retaining walls, and the instructions for checking an address on the City’s mapping tool at map.toronto.ca/torontomaps by ticking the Ravine and Natural Feature Protection By-law box under Boundaries. toronto.ca
• How to Apply For a Tree or Ravine Permit. City of Toronto. The full document list for a ravine permit application, including the plan of survey, the arborist report covering trees within 12 metres, the geotechnical report addressing soil conditions and slope stability, and the $583 per tree planting guarantee. toronto.ca
• Municipal Code Chapter 813, Trees. City of Toronto. Section 813-12 on the 30-centimetre stem measured at 1.4 metres; section 813-13 exemptions including trees in ravine protection areas; section 813-20 on two-year maintenance and cash in lieu at 120 per cent; and the section 813-29 penalties. toronto.ca
• TRCA Planning and Permits. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. Ontario Regulation 41/24 under the Conservation Authorities Act, the activities requiring a permit including home additions, decks, pools and fill placement, the section 5 exemptions, and the warning that flood plains in particular are not always apparent. trca.ca
• TRCA Regulated Area Search Tool. Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. The tool to run a specific address against the regulated area before waiving a condition. trca.ca
• High Park Movement Strategy. City of Toronto study page. The long-term goal of a car-free High Park, the interim report of 11 May 2022 as item 2022.IE30.16, Council approval in May 2023 as item 2023.IE3.7, the vehicle restrictions in force since August 2023, TTC route 203 hours and seasons, the cycling pilot and shuttle history, and the 2026 to 2028 schedule, together with the road redesign phase 2 public meeting presentation of 7 April 2026. toronto.ca
• Cherry Blossoms in Toronto parks. City of Toronto. The statement that there is no visitor vehicle or parking access during peak bloom, that only Wheel-Trans vehicles and TTC buses are allowed in, the four to ten day bloom window and the roughly 50 trees planted in 2017 and 2018. toronto.ca
• High Park, Colborne Lodge and the High Park Animal Display. City of Toronto parks and museums pages. The 1873 Howard deed of 165 acres, the purchases of 1876 and 1930 expanding the park to 399 acres, the animal display established in 1893 and its more than 600,000 visitors a year. Approximately two-thirds of the park in a natural state, the roughly 23 hectares of tallgrass savannah, prairie and woodland, and the 2022 Provincially Significant Wetland Complex designation of Grenadier Pond together with its Environmentally Significant Area and Area of Natural and Scientific Interest status. toronto.ca
• Fishing in Toronto’s parks. City of Toronto. Fishing permitted at the south end of Grenadier Pond only, the Outdoors Card and licence tag requirement, and the note that some bigger fish should not be eaten due to contaminants. toronto.ca
• Heritage Conservation Districts and Studies, and the Bloor Street West HCD Study. City of Toronto. Bloor West Village listed under studies completed alongside Casa Loma, the Distillery District and Weston II; its absence from the 27 designated districts, the in-development list and the districts under appeal; and the Fall 2017 initiation with a study area bounded by High Park to the east and the Humber River to the west. toronto.ca
• Heritage Register, and the Heritage Register open dataset. City of Toronto. The distinction between listing and designation, the 60 days notice before demolition, the Bill 23 amendments to the Ontario Heritage Act, and the register file HRAPQ22026 dated 4 June 2026 from which the address, status, listing date and description entries on this page are taken. toronto.ca
• Bloor West Village Avenue Study, and the Bloor West Village Urban Design Guidelines, April 2026. City of Toronto. The final staff report and urban design guidelines adopted by Council on 16 December 2025, and the coordinated but separate Bloor Street West Heritage Conservation District Study. toronto.ca
• Multiplex Study (2–4 Units), Multiplex Housing, and Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods. City of Toronto. Council decision of 10 May 2023 as item 2023.PH3.16 with by-laws law0473 and law0474 in effect 14 June and 12 May 2023; and the 25 to 26 June 2025 adoption of by-laws law0653, law0654 and law0648 enabling up to six units in Toronto and East York District and Ward 23 only. toronto.ca
• Garden Suites. City of Toronto. Council adoption on 2 February 2022 with By-laws 0100-2022 and 0101-2022, the property-specific appeal maintained, the amendments of 24 June 2025 as item PH23.1, and Ontario Regulation 462/24 in force 20 November 2024. toronto.ca
• Application Information Centre, and the Development Applications open dataset. City of Toronto. The live lookup for any planning file, and the dataset downloaded 31 August 2026 from which the addresses, storeys, unit counts, file numbers, submission dates and statuses in item 6 are taken, including the legacy OMB labels that now mean the Ontario Land Tribunal. toronto.ca
• Basement Flooding Protection Program, and the Program Map. City of Toronto. The programme description, the Environmental Assessment studies completed in 67 areas between 2006 and 2024, and study areas 4, 5 and 49 with their wards and completion years. toronto.ca
• Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy Program. City of Toronto. The subsidy levels for work completed on or after 12 November 2025, the $1,600 backwater valve cap for up to two devices, the $2,250 sump pump cap with $300 for battery backup, the $400 severance and capping cap, the $6,650 overall maximum, and the eligibility conditions. toronto.ca
• Gardiner Expressway Rehabilitation Strategy. City of Toronto. The six sections and their statuses, including the 6.5 kilometres and 15 bridges in the Highway 427 to Humber River section, and the Humber River to Dufferin Street section pending an engineering evaluation. toronto.ca
• Municipal Land Transfer Tax rates and fees, and Council item 2025.EX28.1. City of Toronto. The bracket table effective 1 April 2026, the $102.56 plus HST administration fee, the $221.22 refund request fee, the $4,475 first-time purchaser rebate under Chapter 760 section 760-60C, and the Council decision adopted 16 and 17 December 2025. toronto.ca
• Municipal Code Chapter 760, Municipal Land Transfer Tax. City of Toronto. As read on 31 August 2026 the consolidation still shows the pre-April-2026 table at section 760-9.2A, with 3.5 per cent from $3 million to $4 million rising to 7.5 per cent above $20 million. toronto.ca
• Vacant Home Tax; and MPAC, Understanding Your Assessment. City of Toronto and the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation. The 3 per cent rate from the 2024 taxation year, the six-month definition, the automatic deeming rule, the exemption categories, the $10,000 fine and 1.25 per cent monthly interest; and MPAC’s statement that the province has postponed the 2020 Assessment Update. toronto.ca
• Elementary Out-of-Area Admissions, and Out-of-Area Admissions. Toronto District School Board. The 2027-28 window opening 4 January 2027 and closing at 4:00 p.m. on 22 January 2027, one school per application, the transportation and local-school registration requirements, the four status categories, and the November 2026 status update. tdsb.on.ca
• High Park Station. Toronto Transit Commission. The two new elevators, the new main entrance structure and automatic sliding doors, and the completion of the work in March 2025. ttc.ca
• Neighbourhood Profiles, 2021 Census, 158-neighbourhood model. City of Toronto Open Data, dataset 6e19a90f-971c-46b3-852c-0c48c436d1fc, file nbhd_2021_census_profile_full_158model.xlsx, refreshed 27 May 2026. Population, tenure, income, dwelling value, shelter cost, structural type and period of construction for High Park-Swansea (87) and High Park North (88), published as Statistics Canada 25 per cent sample data. toronto.ca