Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods (EHON) is a City-wide program to increase the number of housing units available in hopes of curbing rapid escalation in prices for homes and for rents in rental units. The program aims to create more low-rise dwelling units including duplexes, triplexes and garden/laneway suites.
Among the recommended revisions:
- Inclusion of provisions in Policy 4.1.5 of the Official Plan to help ensure new multiplex units fit with neighbourhood character
- stronger protections for existing trees when new multiplex units are built.
- a reminder that Long Branch already has zoning that permits multiplex and semi-detached home construction, but only single detached homes are being built by developers.
The point is to ensure new multiplex units are designed to fit in with neighbourhood character and that Long Branch has a mix of low-rise housing types that show that multi-family dwellings can exist in harmony with detached single-family homes. As well, the City should be taking steps to ensure that environmental policies in the City’s Official Plan regarding protection of mature trees, which are frequently taken down to make way for new house construction, are better enforced.
The full text of our letter to EHON Toronto appears below