What records explain additional dwelling units at a Thunder Bay home?

The City's guide says additional dwelling units are allowed in the Urban Low-Rise (UL) and Urban Mixed-Use (UX) zones on lots with municipal services up to the current City standards, and that a property must have both City water and sanitary sewer service. A unit can be built inside the house, as an addition, or in an accessory building in the yard. Lot size sets how many homes fit: in the Urban Low-rise zone the guide shows two homes on a lot with 10.0 m of frontage and 300 m², three on 13.5 m and 405 m², and four on 18.0 m and 540 m². A building with one to four homes needs one on-site parking space per home, and parking on the street or boulevard doesn't count.

The guide gives reduced requirements to a Converted House, a building put up before 1 January 1945 as a detached house with one home and later renovated to hold more, and says an existing unit that needs to be legalized goes through the City's Building Services. A permission in the zone does not make an existing basement apartment lawful; the building permit and its inspections are the records that do. The City's page says its additional dwelling unit grant is fully subscribed and not taking new applications.

• Building an ADU: the City's page on unit types, its lot search tool and the grants
• How to Create an Additional Dwelling Unit on Your Property: the City's guide: zones, lot sizes, servicing and parking (PDF)

Extra units allowed is in the free check as a summary of the City's rule, from our hand-kept table of city rules, and the full report reads the lot's zone where the City's zoning map is open data we can use; where it isn't, the report's line says where the City 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