Open data report

What Toronto’s Committee of Adjustment actually approves

For multiplex builders, architects, and planners: see approval patterns by project type before you pay for drawings.

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30,556

Applications matched to a lot

157

Areas with enough cases to compare

At least 10 decided cases

2022–2026

Approval trends shown

Covers applications since 2017. Area rankings use city lot-matched zones, not Toronto’s official neighbourhood boundaries.

Compare by project type

Six project types, one chart each. Pick the lane that matches your build. No filters, no spreadsheets.

Fourplex & multiplex

Toronto’s multiplex policy shows up on COA dockets as four-unit and houseplex variances. Approval rates rose after 2023, but where you build still shapes the outcome.

In 2026, 79% of decided cases were approved (34 cases). Past results do not predict your outcome.

Approval rate by year

2022

92%

2023

100%

2024

82%

2025

83%

2026

79%

Areas with the highest approval rates

Rockcliffe-Smythe90%10 cases

Decisions are same-day. The wait is not.

For minor variances, nearly all decided cases get an outcome the same day as the hearing. The slow part is getting on the docket: median wait from application to hearing is 85 days. Plan your timeline around queue time, not the hearing itself.

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Methodology

Built from Toronto Open Data Committee of Adjustment active and closed feeds.
Charts use the last five years of decisions; the historical feed reaches back to 2017.
Charts cover minor variance applications classified by project typology.
Approval rate counts approved and denied outcomes only.
We hide years with fewer than three decided cases.
Area rankings require at least 10 decided cases for the selected project type (157 areas qualify today; 158 areas have at least one case in the full dataset).
Toronto does not publish decision dates; we estimate them from the appeal window under the Planning Act.

Not legal advice. Historical Committee of Adjustment outcomes from public open data; past approval rates do not guarantee future results.

Data as of August 28, 2026.

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Compare by project type

Six project types, one chart each. Pick the lane that matches your build. No filters, no spreadsheets.

Fourplex & multiplex

Toronto’s multiplex policy shows up on COA dockets as four-unit and houseplex variances. Approval rates rose after 2023, but where you build still shapes the outcome.

In 2026, 79% of decided cases were approved (34 cases). Past results do not predict your outcome.

Approval rate by year

2022

92%

2023

100%

2024

82%

2025

83%

2026

79%

Areas with the highest approval rates

Rockcliffe-Smythe90%10 cases

Methodology

Built from Toronto Open Data Committee of Adjustment active and closed feeds.

Charts use the last five years of decisions; the historical feed reaches back to 2017.

Charts cover minor variance applications classified by project typology.

Approval rate counts approved and denied outcomes only.

We hide years with fewer than three decided cases.

Area rankings require at least 10 decided cases for the selected project type (157 areas qualify today; 158 areas have at least one case in the full dataset).

Toronto does not publish decision dates; we estimate them from the appeal window under the Planning Act.

Not legal advice. Historical Committee of Adjustment outcomes from public open data; past approval rates do not guarantee future results.

Data as of August 28, 2026.