TMU Bylaw Harmonization

Toronto Metropolitan University’s campus development is governed by a set of City of Toronto zoning bylaws. These bylaws are municipal requirements that specify how the university can use and build on the lands that it owns. The current set bylaws were enacted in the mid-1980s. Since then our campus has grown significantly, city priorities have evolved and the ways we learn, teach and move through the city have changed. 

The university has been working with the city to update and consolidate all the bylaws and their requirements to reflect the boundaries of our campus and all TMU-owned properties. This “bylaw harmonization” will simplify the fragmentary regulatory framework that has emerged from the multiple, disconnected property bylaw updates and revisions over the years. 

More effective coordination and cooperation with the city

The TMU Bylaw Harmonization will help to ensure that the goals of our Campus Master Plan can be achieved in alignment with both the City of Toronto’s long-term priorities and the university’s vision, goals and principles. The objectives of the harmonization were to:

• bring all the university’s properties into the city’s current, comprehensive, city-wide Zoning Bylaw 569-2013,
• allow TMU and the city to consider property use, transportation and operations wholistically at a campus-wide, area-based level,
• help to streamline administrative requirements to improve TMU and city processes for better decision-making and forward-thinking planning,
• improve the support for more sustainable operations, transportation infrastructure and carbon-reduction initiatives. 

The by-law harmonization was approved in the spring of 2024.