City of Toronto Development Plans and Guidelines

Following are a variety of plans and guidelines that have been created to try and ensure that the city and its enclosed neighbourhoods evolve and grow in the best possible way.  

The Official Plan is intended to ensure that the City of Toronto evolves, improves and realises its full potential in areas such as transit, land use development, and the environment. The most recent official plan consolidation of Chapters 1 to 5 and Schedules 1 to 4 is in effect as of March 2022. The most recent consolidation of Chapters 6 and 7 is in effect as of June 2015.  Click HERE for more information.

This Retail Design Manual is a collection of best practices and is intended to provide guidance on developing successful ground floor retail spaces. The intent is to provide aspirational retail design best practices to inform, guide, inspire and educate those involved in the design and development of retail uses. This includes developers, architects/designers, City Staff, and property managers. Each of these user groups will refer to this document in a different way and at different stages in the planning, design and development process.  Click HERE for more information.

City Council adopted Mid-Rise Building Performance Standards in 2010 and an Addendum to these Standards in 2016, which are to be used together during the evaluation of mid-rise development applications in locations where the Performance Standards are applicable.  Click HERE for more information.

This updated City  wide  "Tall Buildings Design Guidelines" document integrates and builds upon previous studies and guidelines to establish a new, unified set of performance measures for the evaluation of all tall building development across the city.  Click HERE to access the document.