An East York homeowner is going public with her campaign to have new garden suites limited to just one storey after what she calls a violation of her backyard privacy.
Sandy Chambers, who lives in the Danforth-Greenwood area, says this past summer she returned from a one-week vacation to find a six-metre-high, two-story building with a picture window, looming over her back fence.
“After you get past the shock there’s a little bit of anger,” she said. “I lost all privacy in my yard, I stopped using my yard.”
“It fired me up.”
In response, she planted trees across the back of her yard, and erected a large screen on a backyard shed, which blocks the view from the neighbours’ new picture window.
In 2022, the updated planning rules to allow homeowners to build garden suites on their properties with fewer city restrictions. (Michael Smee/CBC)
She also ordered dozens of lawn signs that read “Save Our Neighbourhoods. No 2-storey Garden Suites Without a Say.” An online petition that she started also appears to be gaining traction, she says, so far garnering about 80 signatures.
CBC Toronto tried to speak with the homeowners but no one answered a knock at the door Thursday.
One of the people who is displaying one of those signs on her front lawn is Rosanna Manarin, who lives next door to the house that installed the garden suite.
She says she was shocked at how completely her light and privacy were limited by the new build.
“I understand the city’s need for density, but what is now sitting next door to me is a watchtower,” she told CBC Toronto.
Rosanna Manarin, who has lived in the same house for 25 years, says the emergence of a two-storey garden suite overshadowing her yard this past summer was a shock. (Michael Smee/CBC)
“Your oasis is completely gone.”
As much as the neighbours may dislike the new structure, both Chambers and Manarin agree that the homeowners are well within their rights, under new city rules that govern the construction of garden suites.
New planning rules introduced to ease housing issues
Technically, the homeowners are within their rights under new city rules that govern the construction of garden suites.
Garden suites are self-contained, detached units often built in backyards and not connected to a public lane, according to the city of Toronto’s website.
In 2022, the city updated planning rules to allow homeowners to build garden suites on their properties with fewer city restrictions. The idea, known as gentle infill housing, was first floated as a way to help ease the city’s housing crunch.
Instead of looking for a zoning change — which would have meant an opportunity for public discussion about the new build — property owners are now only required to apply for a building permit to put up structures such as garden suites and multiplexes.
The new process doesn’t include an opportunity for public input, as long as the plan doesn’t require any variances — smaller setbacks, for instance.
Numbers from the city show the public has reacted enthusiastically. In 2022, the first year that garden suites were allowed without expensive and time-consuming rezoning applications, just 34 building permits were issued. By 2025, that number had risen to a total of 361.
Staff say so far, 627 have been built while another 755 are under construction.
But there have also been complaints.
Garden suites a ‘turn off’ for buyers: real estate broker
The city does not track criticisms for the initiative, but anecdotally, real estate experts say they’re hearing from unhappy homeowners.
Real estate broker Justin Bregman says potential buyers he’s encountered are not enthusiastic about the lack of light and privacy that some garden suites bring to a neighbourhood.
In terms of resale value, “It’s a turn off,” he says.
“If all of a sudden there’s a two-storey, or a 20-foot (six-metre) high [building] that’s completely blocking your backyard, that absolutely is going to affect value.”
City staff did not answer directly when asked to comment on Chambers’ drive to have garden suites limited to one storey.
In an email to CBC Toronto, staff wrote: “The City of Toronto recognizes that new construction can raise concerns for neighbouring property owners, including concerns related to privacy, sunlight and construction impacts,” the email states.
“While these concerns are understandable…these concerns do not, on their own, provide a basis to withhold a building permit” if the project complies with the provincial building code.
Toronto real estate lawyer Bob Aaron points out that backyard privacy is never guaranteed in an urban neighbourhood.
Garden suites aside, most people with a two storey house can see into a neighbour’s yard.
“Frankly there is no right to privacy from neighbouring properties looking into your property in Canadian law,” he said.
“That’s the joy of urban living.”