On Pharmacy Avenue in Scarborough, the system didn’t just slow down.
It said no.
A six-storey mid-rise proposal—supported by planning staff and aligned with Toronto’s “gentle intensification” framework—was rejected over parking concerns and the ever-elastic phrase “neighbourhood character.” The project is now under appeal.
On paper, this shouldn’t have happened.
Both Pharmacy Avenue and Islington Avenue were redesignated in 2024 as major streets under Toronto’s EHON initiative, explicitly allowing small apartment buildings up to six storeys. Same policy. Same intent. Two completely different outcomes.
That inconsistency is the story.
Legacy rules—some dating back to the 1950s—are still being selectively applied, even when they directly contradict updated council policy. And that disconnect matters more now than ever.
Here’s why.
High-density towers aren’t pencil.
Mid-rise projects are stalling under financing pressure.
Small and mid-scale developers are the ones stepping in to fill the supply gap.
But they can’t carry prolonged approval risk.
When committee decisions override adopted policy, uncertainty becomes the cost of entry. Smaller builders don’t have the balance sheets to wait years in limbo. Non-traditional investors don’t price political volatility into modest rental projects. So they walk.
And that’s dangerous.
Because this type of six-storey, corridor-based rental housing is exactly what can move quickly in a frozen market. It has lower capital intensity. Faster to deliver. Less reliant on speculative presales. In other words, it’s the supply profile cities say they want.
For Calgary buyers and investors, this isn’t a Toronto problem to ignore. It’s a preview.
As Calgary advances zoning reform, missing-middle policies, and corridor density, the lesson is clear: policy alignment doesn’t eliminate execution risk. Political discretion still shapes outcomes. Context still matters. And approvals are not binary—they’re negotiated.
For sellers, that means entitlement certainty carries real value.
For buyers, it means underwriting timelines matter as much as underwriting rents.
For investors, it reinforces a hard truth: risk today lives upstream, long before construction.
Pharmacy Avenue didn’t fail because the idea was wrong.
It failed because the system couldn’t decide which rules actually mattered.
And in today’s real estate market, uncertainty isn’t neutral—it’s a deterrent.
