A Heritage Conservation District (HCD) is a geographically defined area that has cultural heritage value. HCDs are recognized as having cultural heritage value because they contain a concentration of properties that are historically or culturally significant to the city. Together these properties create a distinct character, or sense of place. An HCD is legally protected by a municipal by-law under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act (OHA).
HCDs are a planning tool that guide change in the area through place-based policies. The policies aim to conserve and enhance the social, cultural and architectural history of a district, while anticipating and managing contextually appropriate growth and development.
In addition to identifying and designating HCDs, City Planning is undertaking a number of planning studies that include heritage components, such as Cultural Heritage Resource Assessments (CHRAs), which provide an opportunity to identify heritage resources and inform the development of area-specific policies and guidelines. Visit the Toronto Heritage Survey page for information about current and completed survey work informing other Planning Studies.
The nomination, study, and planning of HCDs is guided by the City Council-adopted document Heritage Conservation Districts in Toronto: Procedures, Policies and Terms of Reference.
| Heritage Conservation District | Description | Year Designated |
| Blythwood Road | Blythwood Road is an area of shared character dating back to the early establishment of the street (first named Victoria Avenue) as a right-of-way over property originally owned by Jessie Ketchum in 1860. As such, Blythwood Road has a longer range of periods of construction and greater variety of architectural styles than adjacent streets, with a more individualistic range of expression. | 2005 |
| Cabbagetown (North, Northwest, Metcalfe, South) | Cabbagetown is recognized as one of the most vibrant residential neighbourhoods in Toronto. The “Victorian” character of the District is visible in the relatively unchanged streetscapes, many surviving examples of row housing, and single family residences displaying late 19th century architectural styles and an integrity of form. | 2002 - 2008 |
| Cabbagetown Southwest (HCD Plan and Appendix D) | Cabbagetown Southwest is a residential and mixed-use neighbourhood featuring a collection of properties in a variety of architectural styles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The District’s initial development began in the 1850s, with a significant development period in the 1870s and 1880s. | 2024 |
| Draper Street | Draper Street is a cohesive row of Second Empire, semi-detached workers’ cottages built between 1881 and 1889 located within the downtown core. The street has retained its residential character despite the surrounding area's transition to industrial and manufacturing uses in the late 19th and 20th centuries and has a high degree of integrity. A copy of the HCD Plan is available upon request. | 1999 |
| East Annex | The East Annex was the first large-scale residential neighbourhood to be studied in Toronto as a potential heritage conservation district. The character of the area is one of incremental change where the major periods of development, primarily from the 1870s to the first decade of the 20th century, are amply represented. A copy of the HCD Plan is available upon request | 1994 |
| Fort York | Fort York was the first heritage conservation district designated in Toronto. The Heritage Conservation District includes the grounds of Historic Fort York and a portion of the remaining undeveloped Garrison Common to the west of the Fort. A copy of the HCD Plan is available upon request. | 1985 |
| Garden District | The Garden District is characterized as a neighbourhood book-ended by two public parks in Toronto's downtown east side: Allan Gardens to the north and Moss Park to the south. The District primarily contains representative examples of late 19th and early 20th century houses. | 2017 (OLT approval 2021) |
| Harbord Village (Phase 1, Phase 2) | Harbord Village is a primarily residential neighbourhood where the majority of houses date from the late 19th century. The area contains representative examples of workers housing constructed by a small number of speculative developers, defined by a fine grain lot pattern and a relative completeness of row housing in a variety of styles. | 2005 / 2011 |
| Historic Yonge Street (HCD Plan) | The section of Yonge Street between College Street and Bloor Street has a dynamic history as one of Toronto's premier main streets, occupied by independent businesses, government services, professional and fraternal organizations and cultural venues defined by late 19th and early 20th century commercial main street buildings. | 2016 (OLT approval 2024) |
| Kensington Market | Kensington Market is an important historic neighbourhood and distinctive urban district. It is a microcosm of Canada’s diverse immigrant population, where many different ethnocultural communities have each added to the area’s layers of built form, maintained a dynamic market, and contributed to a vibrant street life. Kensington Market’s national significance is also recognized through its designation as a National Historic Site under the Historic Sites and Monuments Act. | 2025 (OLT approval 2026) |
| King-Spadina | The King-Spadina area contains a concentration of late 19th and early to mid-20th century residential and industrial/commercial buildings; three public parks, including Victoria Memorial Square, Clarence Square, and St. Andrew’s Playground; and a distinctive network of laneways. These historic resources are associated with several periods of Toronto’s historical and economic development but are most prominently a reflection of Toronto’s period of industrial and manufacturing growth at the turn of the 20th century. | 2017 (OLT approval 2024) |
| Kingswood Road South | Kingswood Road South is part of the Balmy Beach neighbourhood, a former seasonal resort community on the shores of Lake Ontario. Its geographic location along the lakefront contributes to a defined sense of place as one of only a few Toronto neighbourhoods that remains connected to its waterfront. Early 20th-century architecture and mature streetscapes preserve a strong relationship with the history of Balmy Beach and the evolution of the area into a streetcar suburb of Toronto. | 2010 |
| Lyall Avenue | Lyall Avenue is well known to local residents as an avenue of special character. This tree-lined street with well kept turn-of-the-20th century architecture and a balanced streetscape preserves a strong connection with the historical development of East Toronto. | 2006 |
| West Annex Phase 1: Madison Avenue | Madison Avenue is located within the West Annex neighbourhood, and contains a significant collection of residential houses that were designed in the prevailing architectural styles of the early 20th century by renowned Toronto architects. | 2015 (LPAT approval 2019) |
| Parkdale Main Street (HCD Plan) |
Parkdale Main Street is an evolved historic district, with a concentration of late-19th and early 20th century commercial buildings. The portion of Queen Street West between Dufferin Street and Macdonell Avenue is the historic main street of the Village and Town of Parkdale, and reflects its evolution from a village, to a streetcar suburb, and present-day urban community. | 2022 (in force 2024) |
| Queen Street West | Queen Street West is defined by the historic nature of its buildings, its vibrant street life, and its diverse retail and commercial environment. It provides an important transition from the financial district and the core of downtown Toronto to the residential neighbourhoods to the west. Queen Street West is unique in its combination of historic architecture, pedestrian oriented retail, and appeal to local residents, other Torontonians and tourists alike. | 2007 |
| Riverdale | Riverdale contains some of the earliest properties on the east side of the Don River and reflects a period of development which stretched from the mid-1880s to the First World War. The houses are a mixture of Bay-n-Gable, Second Empire row houses, and examples of modest Edwardian Four Squares. | 2008 |
| Rosedale (South, North) | Rosedale was developed as an early picturesque suburb of Toronto, with varied architectural styles representative of upper class housing from the 1880s to 1930s. The District was home to some of Toronto's most prominent citizens who commissioned houses from the city's leading architects of their time. Its curvilinear streets, mature tree canopy, park-like lots and variety of historic styles contribute to a defined sense of place within close proximity to the downtown core. | 2002 / 2004 |
| St. Lawrence Neighbourhood | St. Lawrence Neighbourhood is a dynamic mixed-use area that encompasses the original 10 blocks of the Town of York, significant cultural institutions, and a richly layered historic context that reflects the evolution of Toronto from its initial period of European settlement to the mid-20th century. | 2015 (OLT approval 2020) |
| Teiaiagon-Baby Point (HCD Plan) | The Teiaiagon-Baby Point Heritage Conservation District, located along the Humber River, is a significant area in the City and has cultural heritage value based on thousands of years of Indigenous settlement and use, archaeological resources and burials, natural features, and association with Indigenous ways of knowing and being. The District has historic and associative value as part of the ancestral lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat peoples, and as the historic location of Teiaiagon, a mid-to-late seventeenth century Haudenosaunee village. Baby Point was also part of the larger Humber Valley Surveys designed by the Home Smith Company in the early 20th century. The District is a designed cultural heritage landscape, based on its landscape features, street pattern, and built form which reflect the Garden Suburb design. The Garden Suburb is also reflected in its homes that date from the Home Smith building period (1911-1941), during which design restrictions were put in place to protect the character of the neighbourhood. | 2025 |
| Union Station | Union Station occupies a central position in Toronto's urban landscape. Located between the Financial District, Entertainment District, the St. Lawrence Neighbourhood, and the post-industrial waterfront, the Union Station HCD is a significant cultural landscape that, historically and into the present, serves as hub for transportation and commerce and a link between divergent urban conditions. | 2006 |
| Weston Phase 1 | Weston includes portions of the former Town of Weston and is located on the banks of the Humber River. It includes buildings that were constructed as early as the 1850s, with the majority built in the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. | 2006 |
| Wychwood Park | Wychwood Park is a residential community of approximately sixty homes, laid out according to a plan registered in 1891. Largely built between 1905 and 1917, many of the predominantly Arts-and-Crafts style houses are of considerable architectural and associative significance due to their occupants and designers. The architecture, combined with the park-like ambience as a whole, contribute to a unique sense of place. | 1985 |
| Yorkville - Hazelton | The Village of Yorkville, incorporated in 1853, was historically the closest town to the City of Toronto, and an early working-class suburb that drew labourers, shopkeepers, and professionals alike. The result is a mix of 19th century housing types, built close together and sharing a similar relationship with the street. By the 1960s Yorkville was the heart of one of Toronto’s finest and most creative arts communities. Today, the original houses along Hazelton Avenue and associated streets provide a link to the cosmopolitan neighbourhood's past. | 2002 |
A by-law designating an HCD may be appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal. Unlike appeals under the Planning Act, a by-law adopted under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act to designate an HCD does not come into force until all appeals have been resolved or dismissed.
The following HCDs have been adopted by Council but are currently under appeal:
Designating a heritage conservation district in Toronto is a phased process. There are two key phases in creating an HCD:
City Council authorizes an HCD Study. The goal of an HCD Study is to understand the history and cultural heritage value of the area under study. An HCD Study involves archival research, site visits and surveys, and community consultation. This information is used to help answer the question: does the area under study merit Part V designation as an HCD.
City Planning is currently undertaking the following Heritage Conservation District Studies:
At the end of the HCD Study phase, Heritage Planning staff will present a report with recommendation(s) to the Toronto Preservation Board (a municipal advisory committee to Council) for their consideration. If the Toronto Preservation Board believes the area merits a Part V designation, Heritage Planning staff may proceed to the second phase: the preparation of the HCD Plan.
Not all HCD studies result in a recommendation to designate the area as an HCD under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act. Instead, a completed HCD Study may result in a variety of recommendations, such as the designation of individual properties under Part IV of the Ontario Heritage Act or the creation of urban design guidelines for the area.
The Ontario Heritage Act requires certain content to be included in an HCD Plan (Section 41.1(5)). In Toronto, an HCD Plan must also meet the requirements of the HCD Terms of Reference adopted by City Council in 2012.
The Ontario Heritage Act requires one public meeting to take place as part of the HCD designation process. The Toronto Preservation Board (TPB) meeting is the public meeting as required by the Ontario Heritage Act. It gives concerned parties the ability to submit comments, and/or request to speak at the meeting. All property owners within a proposed HCD are notified by mail when the staff report and HCD Plan are scheduled for consideration by the TPB.
For an area to become an HCD, City Council must adopt a by-law designating the area and serve notice of the by-law according to the requirements of the Ontario Heritage Act (Section 41.1(3)). The HCD Plan for the area will be adopted as part of the by-law designating the district. See the ‘List of Heritage Conservation Districts’ drop-down for adopted HCDs and their respective Plans.
The City’s first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) will guide the City’s actions towards truth, justice and reconciliation from 2022 to 2032. As stated in the City of Toronto’s Official Plan, city planning is one of many avenues for advancing reconciliation and, as we look to the future, it is imperative that we decolonize our policies, processes and practices for shaping our city.
An HCD can support the recommendations of the RAP in several ways. For example, an HCD can protect sites of Indigenous significance (such as the Teiaiagon-Baby Point HCD). HCD Plans can also include policies, guidelines, and processes that promote Indigenous place-keeping and place-making. The RAP acknowledges place-making and place-keeping as being “integral to truth, justice and reconciliation in that it creates and nurtures space, in process and policy, for ceremony, teaching and community; strengthens Indigenous connections with lands and waters; and builds cultural competency and capacity for land-based Indigenous engagement (RAP, 44).
New construction, exterior alterations, and additions to properties within an HCD will require a heritage permit and will need to meet the policies of the relevant HCD Plan, as well as other City requirements.
District designation does not prevent change from occurring within the HCD. All HCD Plans anticipate future changes to buildings and structures as a natural result of how communities grow and evolve. The policies and guidelines in HCD Plans ensure that future changes complement, rather than detract from, a district’s character.
Many of the City’s HCD Plans provide guidance on the use of common sustainable development technologies and design approaches, recognizing the City’s objective to create a climate resilient city.
The City’s Application Requirements for Heritage Properties provides information on obtaining heritage permits and when they are required. An HCD Plan will also explain when a heritage permit is required for that specific district.
Sometimes a heritage permit is not needed for properties within HCDs. A heritage permit is not required for:
There is no cost to apply for a standalone heritage permit. Most heritage permit applications can be approved within a week. However, complicated applications that involve extensive alterations can take longer.
A heritage permit does not replace a building permit. If your project also requires a building permit, the two permit systems are assessed and issued together. There may be fees connected to the building permit application.
More information on the application decision process is available on the Heritage Permit Guide page.
Designation under the Ontario Heritage Act does not regulate the use of a property. Zoning by-laws regulate the use of land and where buildings and structures can be located. If an owner would like to change (rezone) the use of a property, an application is required under the Planning Act. See Planning Application Forms for more information. If the rezoning application also proposes alterations to the exterior of the building, a heritage permit may be required if the alterations are visible from the Public Realm, or if they affect a Heritage Attribute.
Diversifying housing types and intensification within HCDs
One of the priorities in the City’s Official Plan is addressing housing demand by facilitating a broader range of housing options, such as laneway housing, secondary suites, and multiplexes. These housing types can continue to be supported by an HCD Plan. Additional units may be accommodated within existing structures or through additions and new buildings in a way that conserves the heritage value of the area and the property.
The protection, use, and adaptive reuse of heritage properties enrich our daily experience of the City. From commuting through Union Station and shopping on Queen Street West, to hiking the Humber River and Rouge Valleys, the maintenance and conservation of our built and natural heritage contribute to a shared sense of place and belonging for the City’s inhabitants.
Heritage Conservation District Plans contain policies and guidelines that guide the review of development applications and permits within the district. The policies and guidelines apply to all properties in the district and use concise language to provide clear direction on what alterations are permitted, creating predictability for property owners and streamlining the approval process.
In addition, once a by-law designating a district is in force, a property may be eligible for the City’s Heritage Grant or Heritage Tax Rebate programs. An HCD Plan identifies which properties are eligible. The two programs offer financial support to property owners who are undertaking conservation work on their designated heritage property.
The Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, which is responsible for the Ontario Heritage Act, and the Insurance Bureau of Canada have both stated that insurance premiums in Ontario should not increase because of municipal heritage designation. The age and condition of a building can be factors when assessing insurance premiums on any property.
The Insurance Bureau of Canada offers advice to owners if their insurer has questions about insuring a designated property. Additional information on heritage designation and insurance premiums can be found on our website: Insuring Your Heritage Home.
Property values depend on many complex factors. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) does not use HCD status as a determining factor for current value assessment.
Across the province, studies on this topic have found that properties within a HCD either hold their value or increase in value after being part of a HCD boundary. HCD designation can have a positive association with property values.
Refer to Studies: