Minor variances in Ontario: the four tests
When a plan is close to the zoning but not quite inside it, a minor variance is usually the route. The committee applies four tests.
What a minor variance is
A minor variance is permission to depart slightly from a zoning by-law rule, such as a setback, lot frontage, height or lot coverage, without rezoning the property. Applications go to the local Committee of Adjustment under section 45 of the Planning Act.
The four tests
The committee can grant a variance only if it meets all four:
- It is minor. Judged by its impact, not just its size. A small change that harms a neighbour can fail, and a larger change with no real impact can pass.
- It is desirable for the appropriate development or use of the land.
- It maintains the general intent and purpose of the zoning by-law.
- It maintains the general intent and purpose of the official plan.
How to prepare one that passes
- Ask for the least variance that makes the plan work, and show why the full rule cannot be met.
- Show the street: drawings that compare the proposal with neighbouring homes help the committee see fit.
- Read the planning staff report before the hearing and answer its concerns directly.
- Talk to neighbours early. An objection that could have been answered over a fence is harder to answer at a hearing.
Variance or rezoning?
If the plan changes what the land can be used for, or departs a long way from the by-law, a zoning by-law amendment is the right route and goes to council, not the committee. On one infill lot, ADB prepared the rezoning deliverables for four townhouses because a variance would not have been minor.
Where ADB fits
We prepare the drawings and the case, present at the hearing, and carry the approval into the permit and the build. Ask us to look at your lot.
General information, not legal or planning advice for a specific property.