Tiny homes dwarfed by city hall-approved backyard ‘Goliath’

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A giant has moved in behind Ailsa McFarlane’s cute little house.

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McFarlane lives on a small stretch of Craven Rd., not far from Dundas St. E. and Coxwell Ave., known for exceptionally tiny one-storey houses. Not long ago, a neighbour on Rhodes Ave., the next street over, removed a tree that acted as a backyard boundary, halfway between Craven and Rhodes.

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Then, work began on a garden suite – a living space, endorsed by City Hall, built in a homeowner’s backyard.

Two storeys tall and its unfinished outer walls a bold blue, McFarlane said her neighbour’s garden suite is roughly equal in square footage to both her home and the one next door combined.

“David and Goliath, right?” she said with a laugh. “They started building it, and we realized how close and how huge it was going to be.”

Susan Chapelle owns the big blue cube. She said she’s being singled out by one irritable neighbour. “She’s an absolute mad woman. She’s the ultimate NIMBY.” (McFarlane said they’ve never met, and believes Chapelle had a confrontation with a neighbour who does not want to go public with her objections.)

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Chapelle told the Toronto Sun she has roots in the neighbourhood and moved back five years ago. She said she has every right to build in her backyard and she’s following all the rules. She noted, correctly, that her corner of Toronto has several developments like hers.

Chapelle said she and her partner need to build the garden suite for an ailing elderly parent, with her adult children possibly to move in after, but added later: “It may be a rental for families. We don’t know yet.”

Chapelle said if the shoe was on the other foot, “I would’ve been happy if somebody built a laneway house, because I know densification is housing people.”

“And, OK, you don’t like the look of it? That’s not your decision,” she added. (She did promise the blue box will suit the neighbourhood better visually when it’s done.)

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Somewhere in the middle is Paula Fletcher, who has heard plenty about the suite. The councillor for Toronto-Danforth ward told the TorontoSun garden suites add “gentle density” to the city – although she understands this change might seem less gentle from Craven Rd.

While the homes on Craven are unusual, Fletcher said the garden suite is not. Builders can ask for variations to laneway or garden suites, perhaps to make them larger than normally allowed, but Chapelle didn’t do that.

Fletcher said dozens of garden suites are under construction in her ward right now, and sometimes conflict follows. Elsewhere, she said, a constituent put up a large sign condemning another garden suite as a backyard “monstrosity.”

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City Hall has tried to ease the construction of garden and laneway suites as a way to find land for homes for more people to live. Zoning and policy changes mean they’re now allowed more often than not, and the city even offers pre-approved plans. (While two-storey suites are allowed, the city’s default garden suite plans are one-storey.)

Of course, if the city allows something by default, nobody can really object.

“The larger garden suites in the yard, that are backing onto somebody’s backyard, I think that’s a bit of a surprise to the person who sees that, particularly if you don’t have to go to the committee of adjustment to get any approvals,” Fletcher said. “You just build it.

“You can build one, if it fit the criteria. You don’t have to ask your neighbours.”

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A report on garden suites, done by the city’s planning bosses, was submitted to council at its most recent meeting, in July. “With the guiding principles of both ‘garden’ and ‘suite,’ garden suites are intended to provide an additional form of low-rise housing and increase housing supply within neighbourhoods, while maintaining the natural environment, urban forest tree canopy and soft landscaped character in rear yards,” the report said.

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That was one of several items city council considered related to what’s termed the “missing middle” of Toronto’s housing market. Notably, councillors also approved changes to encourage the creation of six-plex homes.

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Fletcher said while the garden suites are “extra housing,” they’re no replacement for something like a six-plex, with a half-dozen rentable homes with separately metered heat and hydro.

“I wouldn’t categorize these as much. They are missing middle, but they’re not a dense form of missing middle,” she said. “They’re not necessarily affordable. … Hard to sell something where you don’t have control over all your own services, do you know what I mean?”

McFarlane finds it hard to believe the “blue monster” hulking near to her little yard is following all the rules. Ironically, she argued her neighbourhood’s teeny homes on tiny lots are their own example of how Toronto “can live densely.”

The “NIMBY” accusation rankles McFarlane, who insisted she agrees “with the intent” of garden suites. But she said she fears one day, tightly packed max-size garden suites could form a massive “wall” behind her yard – the opposite of the “soft landscaped character” described in the city’s July report.

jholmes@postmedia.com

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