October 6, 2026 · Updated October 20, 2026

Toronto Committee of Adjustment: 2026 Fees, Timeline, Hearings

The Committee of Adjustment in Toronto is the panel that decides whether your project can depart a little from the zoning by-law (a minor variance) or whether your lot can be divided or its lines adjusted (a consent, often called a severance). If your drawings don’t meet a zoning rule, you apply, the City notifies your neighbours, a panel hears the application in public, and it decides. For 2026 the City’s application fee runs from $2,228.98 to $6,485.59 for a minor variance and starts at $8,080.65 to sever one lot into two. The City reports that complete applications reached a hearing in under six weeks in 2025, and more than 90% were approved.

What the City’s figures leave out is the time before you file and after the hearing, which is where owners lose the months they didn’t plan for. Every fee and rule below was checked on October 5, 2026 against the City of Toronto and the Planning Act. This is a practical guide, not legal advice; a planner or lawyer is who represents you at a hearing.

What the Committee of Adjustment decides

The Committee is an independent tribunal set up by City Council under the Planning Act. Section 44 lets a council that has a zoning by-law appoint a committee of adjustment of at least three people (Planning Act, s. 44). Panel members are members of the public appointed by Council; City staff advise but don’t decide. The City describes the Committee as “quasi-judicial” because it follows rules of procedure and makes legally binding decisions (City of Toronto, Purpose Statement and Service Commitment).

It hears three kinds of application (City of Toronto, Committee of Adjustment):

• Minor variance (Planning Act, s. 45(1)). Relief from a specific zoning rule: a side yard a little narrower than required, a building a little taller, a floor area a little larger, a parking space fewer. The zoning stays the same; your property gets permission to depart from it in the specific ways the decision lists.
• Consent (Planning Act, s. 53). Dividing one lot into two or more, adding land to a neighbour’s lot, or creating an easement or right-of-way, where a full plan of subdivision isn’t necessary.
• Legal non-conforming uses (Planning Act, s. 45(2)). Permission to enlarge or extend a building whose use was legal before the current by-law but doesn’t comply with it today.

Toronto runs the Committee as four district panels: Toronto and East York, North York, Etobicoke York and Scarborough. Your property’s address decides which one hears you. The volume is high. In 2025 the Committee held close to 100 hearings across the four districts and made more than 2,500 decisions (City of Toronto, Continuous Improvement of the Committee of Adjustment, May 28, 2026).

The Committee can’t rezone a property: a use the zoning doesn’t allow, or a building far beyond what it contemplates, is a rezoning application to Council. Nor can it vary the Ontario Building Code. A laneway suite that fails the fire access rules, for example, can’t be rescued by a variance, as we set out in our guide to building a laneway house in Toronto.

Do you need one at all?

Start by assuming you don’t. Toronto has widened what can be built as of right, meaning with a building permit and no planning application. Multiplexes of up to four units have been permitted city-wide since May 2023, and sixplexes are currently permitted in the Toronto and East York district and Ward 23 (City of Toronto, Expanding Housing Options in Neighbourhoods). Garden and laneway suites are as of right on lots that meet their rules.

The province has also removed some variances altogether. A 2025 change to Ontario Regulation 545/06 lets owners on urban residential land outside the Greenbelt build up to 10% into a required setback without any planning approval, with exclusions for hazard lands, shorelines and land near railways (Environmental Registry of Ontario, 025-0463, decision November 24, 2025; City of Toronto, How Ontario’s Planning Rules Have Changed, July 2026). Where the by-law asks for a 1.2-metre side yard, that is 0.12 metres. Often exactly the shortfall on an older lot.

The variance is for what’s left. A good designer will tell you early which rules your scheme breaks and whether a modest change would avoid the Committee entirely.

The four tests for a minor variance

Section 45(1) of the Planning Act lets the Committee authorize a variance “as in its opinion is desirable for the appropriate development or use of the land, building or structure, if in the opinion of the committee the general intent and purpose of the by-law and of the official plan, if any, are maintained” (Planning Act, s. 45(1)). Planners and the Committee read that sentence as four tests, and an application has to pass all four.

“Minor” is the test owners misread most often. It isn’t a percentage. A large numerical variance with no real effect on anyone can be minor, and a small one that puts a wall of windows over a neighbour’s yard may not be. The strongest applications explain the effect of each variance as well as its size.

The Committee can also attach conditions to an approval, and can require the owner to sign an agreement with the City that is registered on title (Planning Act, s. 45(9) and (9.1)). They bind the project and anyone who buys the property after you.

Consent to sever: when you need it

A consent is how you create a new lot without a plan of subdivision. Section 53(1) allows it where the approval authority is “satisfied that a plan of subdivision of the land is not necessary for the proper and orderly development of the municipality” (Planning Act, s. 53(1)). In Toronto that authority sits with the Committee.

You need one when you want to:

• split one lot into two,
• move a lot line between two properties (a lot addition),
• create or re-establish an easement or right-of-way,
• lease part of a property long term, or settle certain title and mortgage matters.

Severances usually come with minor variances, because each new lot is often a little smaller than the zoning requires; the two are heard together.

Two time limits are specific to consents and catch owners out. First, a consent is usually provisional: it comes with conditions, and if they aren’t met within two years of the notice of decision, the application is deemed refused (Planning Act, s. 53(41)). Second, once the conditions are met and the City issues its certificate, the consent lapses if the transaction isn’t completed within two years of that certificate (s. 53(43)). Put both dates in the schedule the day the decision arrives.

The Committee of Adjustment process, step by step

This is the sequence for a minor variance on a typical Toronto lot. A consent follows the same path, with a draft reference plan from an Ontario Land Surveyor added to the application.

1. Check the as-of-right permissions and talk to staff. The City’s checklist strongly recommends a pre-application inquiry with Committee staff, who will say whether your application is ready or premature (City of Toronto, Committee of Adjustment Application Checklist). Settle three things first: site plan approval if the property needs it (file that first and wait for the first comments; our guide to site plan control in Ontario covers who needs it), the Heritage Register, and whether the lot is TRCA-regulated.
2. Survey and drawings. You need a plan of survey by an Ontario Land Surveyor, and architectural drawings (site plan, floor plans, elevations and site statistics) in one PDF.
3. Zoning review. A Toronto Building zoning examiner reviews the drawings and lists every variance the scheme needs. For a house project this is a Zoning Applicable Law Certificate, which includes up to three reviews (City of Toronto, Zoning Applicable Law Certificate). You can skip it with a Zoning Review Waiver, listing the variances yourself and taking responsibility for errors, which can mean delay or a second application (Zoning Review Waiver Form). For anything beyond a simple addition, we’d pay for the examiner’s review.
4. Trees. Every application needs a Tree Declaration Form, current photos of the yards and of every by-law protected tree within 6 metres of the site (12 metres in ravine areas), and a site plan showing them. On private land a tree is protected at 30 cm in diameter or more (any size in ravine areas). An arborist report may be required (City of Toronto, Forms, Submission Guidelines and Fees).
5. File the application. Applications go by email to bldapplications@toronto.ca as PDFs, with the fee. From October 1, 2026 the City has split the application into Form A (application) and Form B (schedule), and the old single form is accepted only until October 31, 2026 (City of Toronto, Forms, Submission Guidelines and Fees). Only complete applications are scheduled, broadly first come, first served.
6. Circulation. Staff send the application to City divisions and agencies for comment. Planning, Urban Forestry and others may comment or ask for conditions; a revised drawing here often adds weeks.
7. Notice. At least 10 days before the hearing, the City mails notice to every owner within 60 metres and a notice is posted on the property where the public can read it (O. Reg. 200/96).
8. Talk to your neighbours. Not a legal step, but neighbours who have seen the drawings are less likely to arrive at the hearing surprised. Written comments to the Committee are due by 4:30 p.m. five business days before the hearing (City of Toronto, Participate at a Hearing).
9. The hearing. Hearings are public, in person or by video (virtual speakers register two business days ahead). The panel hears you, hears anyone for or against, and usually announces its decision and any conditions at the hearing. It can also adjourn (defer) the application or reserve its decision (Planning Act, s. 45(6)).
10. Written decision. The Committee’s secretary-treasurer sends the signed decision, with reasons and the last day to appeal, within 10 days of the decision (Planning Act, s. 45(10)).
11. Appeal period. Twenty days from the making of the decision (s. 45(12)). If nobody with the right to appeal does, the decision is final and binding (s. 45(14)).
12. Conditions, then the building permit. Clear any conditions, then apply for the building permit with drawings that match what the Committee approved. If the design moves after the hearing, check with the examiner; a new variance means a new application.

How to check an application’s status and the hearing schedule

Any application, yours or a neighbour’s, is in the City’s Application Information Centre: search by address, or filter by file number, type, status or ward. It covers every active Committee of Adjustment and TLAB application and refreshes daily. Staff post the application, City and agency reports and neighbours’ comments there before the hearing, and keep adding to the file up to the hearing day, so look again the week of it. A file stays up for about 90 days after the decision becomes final; older decisions come from the City’s Research Request Portal for a fee, or from Committee staff (City of Toronto, More Information About an Application; Committee of Adjustment Participation Handbook).

As the applicant, you get a tentative hearing date from staff once the application is complete, then a confirmed one, and after the agenda is set it’s hard to move. Each panel posts its own calendar, with every hearing date linked to its agenda: Toronto and East York, Etobicoke York, North York and Scarborough. Your ward decides the panel. When we checked on October 19, 2026, Toronto and East York had hearings most Wednesdays at City Hall, dated through December 16. Hearings are hybrid: speakers attend in person or on Webex, and anyone can watch live or afterwards on the City Planning YouTube channel. The City’s handbook suggests watching past hearings before your own; an hour shows how long agendas run and what the panel asks.

Committee of Adjustment fees in Toronto for 2026

These are the City’s fees effective January 1, 2026 (City of Toronto, Forms, Submission Guidelines and Fees; Zoning Applicable Law Certificate).

A fourplex is more than three units, so on our reading of the schedule it falls in the “all other” category at $6,485.59. Confirm the category with Committee staff when you file.

Refunds. If staff close your file as incomplete, all but $100 can be refunded. Withdraw before internal circulation and up to 80% can be refunded; after circulation but before the notice of hearing is mailed, up to 50%. Once notice is mailed, there’s no refund.

Fee categories are expected to change in 2027 (see the last section below), so recheck them before you file.

The other costs

The rest depends on the job, so here is what drives each cost.

• Surveyor. A plan of survey, plus a draft reference plan for a consent.
• Designer or architect. Drawings, plus revisions if circulation asks for changes. Settle the scheme before you file; every redesign is billed.
• Planner. Often optional for one modest variance on a house, common for several variances, a new multiplex or a severance. The planner writes the justification against the four tests and usually presents.
• Arborist and other studies. Where a protected tree is near the work; shadow studies on larger requests.
• Carrying costs. Interest, taxes and idle land while you wait. On a financed site, this can exceed every other line.

How long the Committee of Adjustment takes in Toronto

The Planning Act says a hearing “shall be held within thirty days after the application is received by the secretary-treasurer” (s. 45(4)). In Toronto only a complete application gets a hearing date, and the City’s own reported figure is a hearing in under six weeks for complete applications in 2025 (City of Toronto, May 28, 2026 report). That covers only the middle of the process.

Plan by adding up the stages, each with its own source of delay:

Two things lengthen the total most: an incomplete or inaccurate application, which gets no hearing date (and a missed variance can mean a second application), and a deferral, which moves you to a later agenda and may need a new notice.

Our advice is to treat the Committee as its own phase with its own float, not a line item inside “design”. In what developers get wrong about schedules we make the point that approval cycles are where projects quietly lose time. This one sits in front of everything else.

Appeals and the Toronto Local Appeal Body

In most of Ontario, Committee decisions are appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal. Toronto is different. Most appeals of Toronto Committee decisions go to the Toronto Local Appeal Body (TLAB), a City tribunal. The exception is where the same matter is already before the OLT under a related application (an Official Plan amendment, rezoning or site plan appeal, for example). Then every appeal of the Committee decision goes to the OLT (City of Toronto, TLAB: Filing an Appeal).

Who can appeal. Since November 28, 2022, only the applicant, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, a “specified person” and a public body can appeal a Committee decision (City of Toronto, TLAB: Filing an Appeal; Planning Act, s. 45(12)). “Specified person” is defined in the Act and means utilities, pipeline and rail operators, telecommunications providers and similar bodies, not neighbours. So a neighbour can speak at the hearing but can’t take an approval to the TLAB, while you keep the right to appeal a refusal or a condition.

How and when. The deadline is 20 days from the decision, and it is printed on the notice of decision. You file a Notice of Appeal (Form 1) with the Committee’s Manager and Deputy Secretary-Treasurer, not with the TLAB, and pay $300 per appeal. To revise the proposal for the appeal, you file an Applicant’s Disclosure (Form 3) within 15 days of the TLAB’s Notice of Hearing (City of Toronto, TLAB: Filing an Appeal).

What the TLAB can do. It hears the application fresh and “may make any decision that the committee could have made on the original application” (Planning Act, s. 45(18)).

An appeal adds months and usually means a planner and often a lawyer. Before appealing a refusal, ask whether a revised application with fewer variances would reach a permit sooner.

Planning the variance into your project budget and schedule

What hurts a small development is rarely the Committee itself. It’s a variance nobody counted, found after the drawings are finished and the lender’s commitment has a date on it.

Find out early, before you commit money

If you’re buying a lot to build on, test the scheme against the by-law in due diligence; a designer can do it in days. If the numbers only work with a variance, you’re taking approval risk, and the land price should reflect that.

Design to the by-law first, then ask for less

The application that does best is the one that asks for the least. Start from what the zoning and the 10% setback rule allow, then add variances one at a time. A variance that adds a rentable unit is usually worth a hearing; one that adds a slightly bigger bathroom may not be. Our guide to building a multiplex in Toronto sets out when a fourplex needs a variance and which ones the City sees most.

Budget the step as its own line

Your first budget should carry the Committee as its own line, with the costs listed above. We wrote about why the first budget is the one that matters most: a cost that isn’t in it reads as an overrun later. If an appeal is a realistic possibility, carry it in your contingency rather than hoping.

Put it on the schedule with float

Show the zoning review, filing, circulation, hearing, appeal period and conditions as separate activities, and give the hearing a date range, not a date. If a lender, tenant or sale depends on a start date, tell them the variance is on the critical path.

Watch for 2027 changes

Panel members’ terms run to November 14, 2026, and they keep sitting until successors are appointed, which is planned for early 2027. The City is also targeting new rules of procedure and a “minor variance streaming” model, with new fee categories by type of application, for the first quarter of 2027 (City of Toronto, May 28, 2026 report). If you’re filing around the turn of the year, ask staff what applies to your application.

Frequently asked questions

What is a committee of adjustment in Ontario?

It’s a local tribunal a municipality appoints under the Planning Act to decide minor variances from its zoning by-law and, where council delegates it, consents to divide land. Members are appointed by council and decide at public hearings. In Toronto, most of its decisions are appealed to the Toronto Local Appeal Body rather than the Ontario Land Tribunal.

How long does the Committee of Adjustment take in Toronto?

The City reports that complete applications reached a hearing in under six weeks in 2025. Add the survey, drawings and zoning review before filing, and the 20-day appeal period, conditions and permit after the hearing. A deferral adds weeks; an appeal adds months.

What are the Committee of Adjustment fees in Toronto?

For 2026, a minor variance is $2,228.98 for additions and alterations to a house of three units or less, $5,011.08 for a new residential building of three units or less, and $6,485.59 for everything else. After-the-fact variances cost double. Severing one lot into two is $8,080.65, and an appeal to the TLAB is $300.

Can my neighbour appeal a minor variance in Toronto?

Generally, no. Since November 28, 2022, only the applicant, the Minister, specified persons such as utilities and railways, and public bodies can appeal. Neighbours still get notice and can comment or speak at the hearing, and the decision must explain what effect their submissions had.

How do I find out when my Committee of Adjustment hearing is?

If you’re the applicant, Committee staff send a tentative date once your application is complete, then a confirmed one. Neighbours get it on the Public Hearing Notice, mailed at least 10 days ahead. Anyone can check the district panel’s hearing calendar on toronto.ca, where each date links to its agenda, or search the address in the Application Information Centre, as set out in the step-by-step section above.

What to do next

Get a survey, get the scheme drawn, and get a zoning examiner’s list of variances before you decide anything else. That list tells you if you need to file, for how many variances, and roughly what it will cost. Then decide: build what the zoning allows, or ask for more and put the time on the schedule.

We haven’t filed Committee of Adjustment applications as a firm; that’s the work of planners, designers and lawyers, and we’d point you to good ones. What we bring is the part around it. Our experience was built at PCL Constructors and Oxford Properties over 20+ years and $3B+ of delivered work, including leading all preconstruction planning on Scarborough Junction, and involvement from early development through completion on Bellwoods House at 111 Strachan. If you’re taking a Toronto site from a variance to an occupied building and want an experienced hand on the budget, the schedule and the team, our development management service is the place to start.