- Part 1: "Rumble on Craven Row"
- Part 2: "How About a Craven Row Challenge?"
- Part 3: "Thoroughly Modern Through-Lots"
- Part 4: "In Yer Face"
October 17: Click here to read the Zoning By-law Amendment for Garden Suites on Parkmount Road Facing Craven Road – Final Report.
February 17, 2026: Councillor Fletcher’s letter to the Toronto and East York Community Council recommended two changes to give Parkmount residents more flexibility, by "reduc[ing] the minimum separation distance from 7.5 to 6.0 metres between the garden suite and the main house and the minimum rear yard setback from 2.6 to 2.5 metres."
March 26, 2026: The amendment was passed at the March 25-26, 2026 meeting of Toronto City Council.
The Planners Proffer a Proposal
On September 9th, the City planners held a community consultation meeting titled "Zoning for Garden Suites: Parkmount Road / Craven Road."
 |
| Photo: More Neighbours Toronto |
I wanted to wait till the City mailed out their presentation slide deck, so I could post it here for those who weren't able to make it to the meeting.
I also thought it would be good to sit with the arguments raised in the Q&A so I could consider them more deeply, rather than posting a hot take. (Jump to this section to read my non-hot take.)
Social media platforms score a quick buck from your outrage. Personal blogs can give you space to breathe and digest.
Last September when the garden suite issue first blew up, and again this month, I've seen some stuff on Reddit, Tiktok, Facebook and X that I kinda wish I hadn't.
I'm not going to link to it, because over the past year (...decade ...week), it has felt more and more vital to make a deliberate effort to discuss a political issue like this without letting the algorithms polarize us further.
Social media billionaires take the money and run.
But the rest of us have to continue to live side by side once the flashpoint-of-the-moment has passed.
Quite literally, in this case.
So it's good practice to see if we can disagree, discuss, and even argue heatedly, without hating each other.
[More after the jump... lots more, but I think the ending is worth it...]
