Defend the four-units-as-of-right reform and build on it
Orillia already permits up to four residential units as-of-right on every serviced lot citywide under its 2025 zoning amendments — one more than the province-wide three-unit baseline. The job now is to defend that reform from rollback and add the next layer: pre-approved ARU designs, parking-minimum changes near downtown, and corridor mid-rise.
Orillia went a step beyond the provincial floor: while Bill 23 requires every Ontario municipality to permit three residential units as-of-right on serviced lots, Orillia permitted up to four, citywide, under its 2025 Zoning By-law amendments. The City's own 2025 housing materials describe the reform as ending exclusionary single-family zoning citywide.
That is genuinely good policy, and it is fragile. As mid-term elections approach, the temptation to relitigate the four-unit reform — to add parking conditions, design conditions, infill restrictions that quietly turn 'as-of-right' into 'maybe, with a hearing' — will increase. The first thing Council should do this term is publicly commit to not weakening the reform.
The second thing Council should do is build on it. The 2025 reform legalized the units. It did not make them easy or cheap to build. The next layer of work is what comes after a permit becomes available: pre-approved design catalogues for garden suites and laneway dwellings (the model Collingwood is using); a free pre-application advisory service for homeowners adding secondary suites; and modest, well-designed downtown parking-minimum relief within an 800m radius of the core so that small-lot infill is actually feasible.
The third thing is the corridors. The current four-units-as-of-right rule applies to existing residential lots. The next gear is mid-rise on identified corridors — that work is happening through the new 'Our Orillia' Official Plan, which proposes up to eight storeys in identified strategic areas. The housing position is best served by adopting that Plan without reducing the corridor heights.
I want to be honest about what I am uncertain on. Heritage character: I do not yet have a precise framework for protecting genuinely heritage streetscapes while permitting gentle infill on adjacent ones. I am reading on it. Parking minimums beyond the downtown radius: the case for removing them more broadly is real, but the political case for it is harder; I would want to see Orillia-specific data on how the 2025 reform has played out before extending the relief.
Sources
Resident input
- Originally published April 22, 2026. The position is now substantially rewritten — I welcome resident input on the new direction, especially on the heritage-character question and on what specific next-layer supports (pre-approved plans, advisory service, corridor mid-rise) would be most useful.
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Version history4 versions1 correction · 1 change of mind
Every change to this position is logged in public, oldest version preserved. A correction means I had a fact wrong and fixed it; a change of mind means my reasoning shifted.
- 2026-06-03Correction
Right-sized the claim against the provincial baseline: Bill 23 already requires three units as-of-right province-wide, so Orillia's four is one above the floor, not unique. Also dropped a 'held up as the model' comparator citation that could not be found in the March 20, 2026 Council Information Package.
Source: Legislative Assembly of Ontario — Bill 23 (three units as-of-right)WasOrillia did something most Ontario cities have not done (held up as the model other municipalities should follow).NowOrillia went a step beyond the provincial floor: Bill 23 requires three units as-of-right; Orillia permitted up to four. - 2026-05-18
Substantial rewrite. The earlier draft proposed permitting missing-middle forms 'as of right' as if it were a future reform. Orillia already did this in 2025 (up to four units citywide, one above the province-wide three-unit baseline). The position is reframed to defend the existing reform and propose the next layer of work.
- 2026-05-09Changed my mind
Narrowed the parking-minimum lift to a downtown radius after resident feedback on neighbourhood parking. Added the pre-application advisory service proposal.
- 2026-04-22
Initial publication.