New commercial buildings in Toronto, up to three storeys and 600 m².

Not if it stays inside the Architects Act's small-building exemption: no more than three storeys and no more than 600 m² of gross area, used for business, personal services or retail, alone or with apartments. Gross area counts every floor above grade, measured to the outside of the exterior walls (or to the centre line of a firewall that no access opening or building service passes through). A basement below grade does not count, but on a sloping lot a walk-out lower floor can, because the Act takes grade from the lowest side of the building. Past either limit, an architect must design the building and an engineer the engineering; a designer who is neither may work on its design only under the personal supervision and direction of a member of the Ontario Association of Architects. We count the area at the zoning review, before design starts.

The two laws measure differently. The Building Code's Part 9 (its rules for small buildings) looks at building area, the largest floor footprint: up to 600 m², and up to three storeys. The Architects Act adds up every floor above ground. A three-storey office of 300 m² a floor is a Part 9 building, but its 900 m² of gross area is past the Act's 600 m² limit, so it needs an architect.

Plan on it. Chapter 415 lists no exemption for a new stand-alone office, clinic or retail building. The exemptions that could fit are narrow: a mixed-use building with 10 dwelling units or fewer, non-residential uses at grade, no more than six storeys, no drive-through, entertainment place of assembly, medical office, place of assembly or place of worship, and no use the zoning permits only with conditions other than a retail store; or an ancillary building under 100 m² serving a non-residential building. Even an exempt project needs approval where the Official Plan requires the street or lane beside it to be widened, or where the Chief Building Official, with the City's Executive Director of Development Review, finds it would benefit on health, safety, accessibility, neighbouring-land or entrance-access matters not already secured by a minor variance or consent condition. The City may also require it within 300 m of a railway line (abandoned lines and lines used only by urban transit do not count), or within 120 m of a wetland, the Great Lakes shoreline, an inland lake or a river or stream valley.

Tier 1 is checked through a planning application, such as site plan, and Version 4 covers every commercial development. Since Bill 98 in 2026, City Planning treats the greenhouse-gas and energy limits, EV charging, green and cool roofs and several landscaping measures as voluntary for private development; stormwater, waste storage, trees and soil volume, weather protection and pedestrian lighting stay required, and bird-friendly glass is kept for now, pending a further review. Meeting a higher tier (2 to 4), together with every Tier 1 measure including the interim voluntary ones, can earn back part of the development charges.

The City's charge falls on the ground floor only. Toronto charges $805.64 per m² of non-residential floor area on the ground floor, paid when the first building permit is issued, so a 250 m² ground floor is $201,410, and offices or shops on upper floors add no City development charge. If a demolition permit for a legally established non-residential building on the lot was issued within 36 months before a complete permit application, the new ground-floor area that replaces its ground floor is not charged, up to the charge that would otherwise apply. The school board's education development charge and, for apartments, the City's residential charges per unit are separate.

Besides the permit fee and its own development charge: the Toronto Catholic District School Board's education development charge, which the City collects with the first building permit for above-ground construction, at $1.67 per square foot of non-residential gross floor area until December 2, 2026 and $1.77 from December 3; parkland, where the City takes 2% of the land for non-residential development, or cash in lieu of it, before the first above-grade building permit; and, where site plan approval applies, City Planning's own application fee. Apartments above add the residential permit rate, $56.33 a unit, and residential development and education charges per unit.

Engineers, or designers registered for that work. Ontario's public registry lists the firm's classes as House, Small Buildings, Large Buildings and HVAC-House; the Small and Large Buildings classes leave out the Building Structural, Building Services and Plumbing classes. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning for a shop or office falls under Part 6 of the Building Code even in a small building, and HVAC-House covers houses only. Foundations that go below a neighbour's footings, and any underpinning, must be designed by a professional engineer. We coordinate their drawings with ours into one permit set.

No. The Architects Act counts eating and drinking as an assembly use, which its small-building exemption does not cover, so a restaurant building, or a new building with a restaurant unit, needs a professional engineer for the engineering and an architect for the design. For a restaurant of up to 100 people in a building of up to three storeys and 600 m² of gross area, a Licensed Technologist of the Ontario Association of Architects may design it instead of an architect. Tell us every use at the start.