Toronto builds the ‘missing middle’ in a parking lot

They are like the unicorns of Toronto housing: small-scale apartment buildings with a few dozen units that could fit effortlessly into low-rise neighbourhoods.

Hundreds dot Toronto’s older areas and even some of its post-war suburbs, but newer versions haven’t been constructed for decades. Toronto’s official plan and its residential zoning bylaws have outright banned or explicitly discouraged such buildings in much of the city. And in places where they might be approved, e.g., on wide arterial streets, developers aren’t interested because they will earn far better returns building mid-rise or high-rise condos.