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An elderly downtown couple says they’re shocked and upset that the city has approved a four-storey duplex next door to their three-story Victorian home, saying the new building will block one window and render their fireplaces useless because of its size.
Real estate experts say the problems facing Bill and Carol Martin — and homeowners in many other Toronto neighbourhoods where multiplexes are sprouting due to policies intended to add much-needed housing to the city — are more than just cosmetic. They’re affecting property values as well.
The Martins have lived in their Strachan Avenue house for almost 50 years, and they say they use their fireplace almost every day during colder months. But that will have to end when the new duplex is built next door, they say, because provincial rules stipulate that chimneys must be at least two feet above neighbouring structures.
The planned duplex, city documents show, will be more than 15 metres high — far higher than their roughly 11-metre tall home.
“We’re so frustrated,” Carol Martin told CBC Toronto. “This affects just so many aspects of our lifestyle.”
Multiplexes part of city push to build housing
In May, 2023 the city cleared the way for builders to erect multiplexes containing up to four units in residential neighbourhoods city-wide, without applying for rezoning. Two years later, six-plex projects in East York, the old City of Toronto, and north Scarborough were added to the list.
It’s all part of a city-wide push to meet its provincially-mandated goal of 285,000 new homes built by 2032. So far this year about 6,500 new homes have been built, city statistics show.
The city’s multiplex tracker shows 8,600 new multiplex units have been completed since 2022, with almost 3,000 new builds underway, many of them in neighbourhoods that have until now been limited to single-family houses.
Next to the Martins’ house, approval to re-build the neighbouring one-storey cottage into a four-storey duplex — with no setback required between the two lot lines — was granted as a series of minor variances by the city’s Toronto and East York Committee of Adjustment in the fall of 2023.
The approved development will butt up directly against the rear half of the Martin’s home up to the second story, covering one window completely.
The couple says they’re aware that committee of adjustment decisions can be appealed. But they say they missed the two-week appeal window because they were coping with a family illness.
The Martins’ home, on the left, will be overshadowed when the cottage next door is replaced with a four-storey duplex whose walls will abut part of their house. (Mike Smee/CBC)
Don Allen, who owns the soon-to-be demolished cottage next to the Martins, declined to be interviewed by CBC Toronto, saying only, “we’re doing everything to code, and trying to be a good neighbour.”
According to a letter sent to the Martins by Allen’s architect, he offered to replace the lost window, and to compensate the Martins “within reason” for any renovations the Martins may need to do to their chimney to render it legally usable again.
Bill Martin told CBC Toronto they turned down the compensation because they felt the term “within reason” wouldn’t cover the extensive extension the chimney would require to bring it up to code.
New housing needed, old homes losing value: experts
Dan Cowling, an architect and friend of the Martins who represented them at the committee of adjustment meeting, says Allen is doing nothing wrong.
“The neighbour complied with all the rules,” he said. “It’s the city that’s making a mistake here.”
David Walsh, a real estate developer who has a special interest in boosting the amount of affordable housing city-wide, says while he applauds the push to increase housing, he warns “we have to figure out what are the trade-offs between providing more density, versus being sensitive and respectful to existing homeowners.”
Justin Bregman, a real estate broker with Justin Bregman and Associates, says there is financial fallout for owners of homes next door to newer forms of housing.
He said he’s reluctant to put a dollar figure on the drop in value that homes experience once a multiplex has gone up next door, but “it’s definitely affecting value … big time.”
“Am I no longer getting sun? Have I lost all my privacy?” he said. “It’s sad and it’s wrong, and I have sympathy, but it’s going to continue.”
City staff wouldn’t speak with CBC Toronto directly, but said in a statement building and demolition permits for property next to the Martins have already been issued.
The statement also points out that the under the building code, it’s up to the Martins — not Allen — to ensure that the existing chimney meets safe height regulations, once the new building has been completed.