What records explain additional residential units at an East Gwillimbury home?

Section 4.1 of the Zoning By-law says that where permitted in a single detached, semi-detached or townhouse dwelling, a maximum of one accessory apartment is permitted per dwelling unit, with no more than one entrance into the front yard, none on a lot that also has a garden suite or coach house, and none in the Environmental Protection or Oak Ridges Moraine Core, Core Linkage or Countryside zones; the parking table asks for one space for the apartment beyond the home's. The Town's accessory apartments page says the Town issues the approval and building permit and that every application needs a Fire Department review with its own fee, and its Zoning By-law Conformity Update page says the by-law is being updated to align with new provincial legislation.

Section 35.1 of the Planning Act says a zoning by-law may not prohibit, on a parcel of urban residential land (in a settlement area and served by municipal sewage works and a municipal drinking water system), two units in a detached house, semi-detached house or rowhouse with one more in an ancillary building, or three units in the house with none in an ancillary building, nor require more than one parking space for each of those units. A lot's zone is on the Town's interactive zoning map, and the Town issues a Zoning Confirmation Letter on request. A general permission does not make an existing basement apartment lawful; the building permit and inspections are the records that do.

• Zoning By-law 2018-043 (office consolidation July 2024): the Town's zoning by-law, with accessory apartments (4.1), home businesses (4.14) and the zone tables (PDF)
• Accessory Apartments: the Town's page on approvals, building permits and the Fire Department review
• Zoning By-law Conformity Update: the Town's page on updating the zoning by-law to new provincial legislation
• Planning Act, section 35.1: the restrictions on zoning by-laws for additional residential units, on e-Laws
• Zoning: the Town's page with the interactive zoning map and the zoning by-law

Extra units allowed is in the free check as a summary of the Town's rule, from our hand-kept table of city rules, and the full report reads the lot's zone where the Town's zoning map is open data we can use; where it isn't, the report's line says where the Town publishes it. Neither is confirmation that a particular unit holds a permit or may be occupied.

Free check: pick “Extra units allowed” See the sample report