Mississauga updating urban design program to help streamline housing approvals

Mississauga is reviewing its urban design requirements as part of the City’s ongoing efforts to get more homes built and make them more affordable. At Planning and Development Committee, staff provided an overview of the City’s Urban Design Program Review and recommended several immediate changes that could help unlock more housing in urban areas.

Urban design helps shape public spaces, streets, buildings and landscapes. The City has a variety of urban design guidelines that developers must follow, including wind and shadow studies. The Urban Design Program Review will include a comprehensive assessment of these guidelines as well as associated Official Plan policies and zoning by-law regulations. The aim is to remove unnecessary housing barriers while continuing to encourage healthy, well-designed and vibrant communities.

The review is also addressing recommendations from the Mayor’s Housing Task Force, which includes more than 30 representatives from Ontario’s private and not-for-profit building and development industry. The Task Force noted that some urban design requirements have made it harder – and too expensive – to get housing built without meaningful results for the community.

Updating urban apartment zones

In late 2024, Mississauga introduced two urban apartment zones in the zoning by-law. The regulations are designed to help speed up development approvals for apartments in urban areas. Staff are now proposing updates to the City’s urban design requirements for these areas. Recommendations include:

• Replacing ‘angular plane’ requirements with simplified setbacks: Many communities across Canada are revisiting policies that require buildings to ‘step back’ as they increase in height. This requirement removes floorspace that could be used for housing – without providing a meaningful impact on the quality of life in these urban communities. It also drives up construction costs by requiring heavier structures, transfer systems and inefficient layouts.

• Reducing minimum tower distances: Setting a minimum distance between towers helps protect privacy, sky views and mitigates wind impacts. Staff recommend reducing the required distance from 30 to 25 metres which is more typical for urban areas. This helps buildings fit more naturally on a site, supports practical building layouts and avoids leaving portions of a site underused – especially on smaller or irregularly shaped properties.

Other urban design-related recommendations include providing more flexibility for amenity areas for residents, ground-floor windows and street-level building entrances.

Next steps

As the City’s urban design review advances, staff will engage with developers and community members to help shape updates to the program. Changes to Urban Design Guidelines and Design Reference Notes will be presented to Council for endorsement.

The proposed zoning changes for the City’s urban apartment zones and amenity areas will go to City Council for approval in April, subject to further comments that may be received prior to the meeting.

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“Housing supply and affordability remain key issues facing Mississauga residents. Reviewing our urban design program will help remove housing barriers without compromising the standards that make our communities great places to live. Cities are not static. As planners, we must be ready to respond to changing demographics, infrastructure needs and economic conditions.” – Andrew Whittemore, Commissioner, Planning and Building

Tags

• Housing
• Planning and Building