Change of use in Toronto. The new use planned and drawn for permit.

Toronto Building says yes: a permit is required for a change of use even when no construction is proposed. The Building Code Act ties it to the hazard: section 10 requires the permit chiefly where the Code's change-of-use table marks the change “Yes”. Some changes are marked “No”, such as a low- or medium-hazard industrial unit becoming an office when the whole unit changes; because the City's guidance is broader, confirm with Toronto Building before relying on that. If the change comes with alterations, their building permit covers it.

It depends on the new use and on the whole building, not your unit. A building of up to three storeys and 600 m² gross area used only for business, personal services, shops, industry or homes is outside the architect requirement (Architects Act, s. 11(3)(a)), so we can design the change itself: the layout, exits, washroom layout and fire separations. Any structural check, fire alarm, sprinkler, ventilation or plumbing change in such a building is designed by an engineer or a designer registered for that work, and an industrial building designed to house an engineered process or equipment needs an engineer (Professional Engineers Act, s. 12(4)). Building work for an assembly use, or in a business or shop building over 600 m² or three storeys, needs an architect and an engineer (or, for a restaurant for up to 100 people in a building within those limits, an OAA Licensed Technologist). An industrial building over those limits needs an architect or an engineer, or both where another use in it takes up more than 600 m². In a bigger building, or for an assembly use, a non-architect may still design interior work that does not affect, and is not likely to affect, the structure, fire separations, fire safety systems, an exit to the outside, the main entrance, public corridors or exterior walls, and adds no floor space by a mezzanine, infill or similar element (s. 11(3)(e)), but a change of use often has to touch those.

More than a shop does. The Architects Act counts eating and drinking as an assembly use, so the design of the building work comes from an architect or, for a restaurant for up to 100 people in a building of up to three storeys and 600 m², an OAA Licensed Technologist (the holder of a limited licence from the Ontario Association of Architects), with an engineer for the engineering, apart from interior-only work that s. 11(3)(e) allows. Under Part 3, the Building Code lets a restaurant designed for 30 people or fewer be classed with shops (Group E), but that does not change the Architects Act. The zoning must allow an eating establishment: in the CR (commercial residential) zone it is a use permitted with conditions, and in the E (employment) zone all eating establishments on a lot are capped at 500 m². Some business licences, eating and drinking establishments among them, start with the City's zoning review for business licence ($248.67 in 2026). Where the restaurant brings alterations or a new major occupancy, the City recommends the Zoning Applicable Law Certificate instead, because it leads to a complete permit application.

Toronto Building's Zoning Use Review answers that for $214.79 (2026), with no plans needed, for uses such as office, personal services, commercial, restaurant and manufacturing. It does not look at parking, loading, built form or the conditions attached to the use, and drive-throughs, patios and recycling uses need the full Zoning Applicable Law Certificate instead. If the use is not permitted, the usual routes are a minor variance from the Committee of Adjustment (Planning Act, s. 45) or a rezoning (s. 34). Where the building's present use was lawful before the by-law banned it and has carried on since, the Committee can also permit a similar or more compatible use (s. 45(2)).

Not when the zoning already permits the new use and the altered part is no more than 1,000 m²: interior alterations that convert all or part of a building to a permitted use are exempt (Municipal Code § 415-45.3), and an industrial-to-industrial conversion must also leave out uses such as recycling, salvage or concrete batching, and any use the zoning permits only with conditions. The exemption is lost if the conversion includes a place of assembly, place of worship, entertainment place of assembly, drive-through or transportation use. Site plan approval (the City's separate review of a property's layout) is still required where the road must be widened. The City can also require it to protect neighbouring land, for health, safety, accessibility or entrance-access reasons, or within 300 m of a rail line or 120 m of a wetland, lake, shoreline or river valley (§ 415-45.5).

Not on existing non-residential floor area converted to another non-residential use without demolition, provided the old use was legally established (Municipal Code § 415-7). The City's overview lists interior alterations that result in a change of use among the projects that may pay, and this conversion rule is what exempts a non-residential change. A change to residential use follows different rules. This is the City's current by-law (1137-2022), which runs to August 2027 unless replaced, and it is up to the owner to show the City that the old use was legal (§ 415-7 C(5) and D).

No. Toronto's Express Services stream takes small commercial interior alterations only where there is no change in use and no change in patron area (the part customers use), so a change of use is not eligible.

Drawings within our scope are signed under BCIN 25897 – 41741, with the firm's registration number, the designer's name and qualification number, a signature and a statement taking responsibility for the design, as Toronto Building requires. Where the law requires an architect or engineer, they design and seal that work and sign the Commitment to General Reviews (the form in which they agree to review the work on site).