What Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment actually approves

Covers applications since 2017. Area rankings use city lot-matched zones, not Toronto’s official neighbourhood boundaries.

Compare by project type

Six project types, one chart each. Pick the lane that matches your build. No filters, no spreadsheets.

Decisions are same-day. The wait is not.

For minor variances, nearly all decided cases get an outcome the same day as the hearing. The slow part is getting on the docket: median wait from application to hearing is 85 days. Plan your timeline around queue time, not the hearing itself.

How Toronto decides a minor variance

A minor variance lets one property depart from Zoning By-law 569-2013. The by-law stays in force for other properties. A rezoning is the application that changes the by-law. The findings, fees, and hearing steps below are the City’s, reviewed on 2026-10-08.

Findings

The City says the Committee must be satisfied that:

• The general intent and purpose of the City’s Official Plan is maintained.
• The general intent and purpose of the City’s Zoning By-law is maintained.
• The proposal is appropriate for the development of the land and/or building.
• The variance requested is minor.

Those four findings restate Planning Act section 45(1). They are Toronto’s test. Other provinces use other names and other tests. Minor variance in Canada.

2026 fees

Minor variance application fees effective January 1, 2026. Chapter 441-4 of the Municipal Code adjusts them every January 1.

Hearing steps

• The applicant posts a public notice sign on the property, visible from the street, for 10 days before the hearing.
• The City mails a notice of public hearing to owners of land within 60 metres of the property at least 10 days before the hearing.
• The Committee usually decides at the hearing. It can adjourn.
• The applicant, and anyone who asked in writing, receives the decision within 10 days.
• Most appeals go to the Toronto Local Appeal Body rather than the Ontario Land Tribunal.

The City’s procedure page does not state a scheduling target for minor variances. The wait from application to hearing on this page is Bucky’s, from Toronto open data.

• City of Toronto, about the Committee of Adjustment
• City of Toronto, planning fees effective January 1, 2026
• Planning Act, section 45
• Floor area ratio
• Zoning setbacks

Methodology

• Built from Toronto Open Data Committee of Adjustment active and closed feeds.
• Charts use the last five years of decisions; the historical feed reaches back to 2017.
• Charts cover minor variance applications classified by project typology.
• Approval rate counts approved and denied outcomes only.
• We hide years with fewer than three decided cases.
• Area rankings require at least 10 decided cases for the selected project type (157 areas qualify today; 158 areas have at least one case in the full dataset).
• Toronto does not publish decision dates; we estimate them from the appeal window under the Planning Act.

Not legal advice. Historical Committee of Adjustment outcomes from public open data; past approval rates do not guarantee future results.

Data as of October 13, 2026.