Inclusionary Zoning Not Turning Out the Way Ontario Housing Advocates Expected

Brian Barth reports on the ongoing sage of the province of Ontario's Promoting Affordable Housing Act, legislation approved in December 2016 that authorized municipalities to implement inclusionary zoning. The catch: "the legislation said that cities had to hold tight on implementing IZ until the minister of housing had a chance to come up with the rules of the road."

A year later, the Minster of Housing produced a draft version of the rules, but the result is a "downsized" version of inclusionary zoning, according to Barth. "The draft is inclusive with regard to developers—but with regard to lower-income city-dwellers, not so much."

While the inclusionary policies adopted in the United States set a minimum requirement for affordable housing to be included in new developments, the Ontario version "prohibits cities from mandating affordable rates for more than 5 percent of units built in low-density areas; in higher-density areas, the cap is 10 percent." The draft inclusionary zoning rules would also prohibit inclusionary zoning for rental properties.

Affordable housing advocates, such as Social Planning Toronto, have been marshaling evidence in an attempt to prove that draft rules would produce far less affordable housing than the province needs. The article includes a lot more detail about the political debate surrounding inclusionary zoning in Ontario, while referencing the ongoing questions and controversies over the policy in the United States.