Garden Suites · Aurora, York Region
Garden suites in Aurora, from the zoning check to the finished build. Registration By-law 6660-24 treats the suite as the lot’s one detached Ancillary Unit, set in the rear or interior side yard. We design the suite, plan the services out from the house and file the permit with the Town of Aurora Building Division.
What’s included
A garden suite is a small new house with all of a house’s rules, on a lot that already has one. The zoning check comes first, because it decides whether there is a suite at all. In Aurora the package goes to the Town of Aurora Building Division, and it is drawn to that department’s checklist.
Before anything is drawn
Lot size, setbacks, height, coverage, tree protection and servicing, checked against the by-law to confirm what fits.
The design
Layouts that get living space out of a small footprint, with a second storey where the by-law allows it.
Built to stand alone
Foundation, framing and roof designed by our P.Eng for a building with no neighbour to lean on.
Move-in condition
Kitchen, bathroom, heating and finishes chosen for a unit that will be rented or lived in by family for years.
The package
Find your situation below. If it’s there, this is the service, and the card underneath is everything you get from our one office.
05 common situations
07
items in your package, all from one P.Eng and BCIN team.
Drawn & stamped in-house
How it runs
Four steps, starting with the one that decides everything else: whether the lot allows a suite at all.
We measure the lot against the by-law and tell you the largest suite that fits, or that one does not, before you spend on design.
Plans, structure, mechanical and site drawings from one office, filed with the city and answered until the permit is issued.
Excavation and foundation, framing, rough-ins, exterior and finishes by our crew, inspected at each stage.
Water, sewer and electrical connected, the final inspection passed, and the unit ready to rent or move into.
Case files
Open any file for the scope, the disciplines involved, what we delivered and what the owner came away with.
A compact two-storey suite in a Toronto backyard. Architectural and structural drawings, zoning review and a framing package that makes every square foot count.
Delivered
New living space on a lot the owners already had.
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Structural walls came out and rooms were added to open the plan. Beam and column design, permit drawings and renovation coordination through to final inspection.
Delivered
An open layout where the load-bearing walls used to be.
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A code-compliant second unit with its own entrance, fire separations between the units, HVAC design and the full permit package.
Delivered
A legal second unit that brings in rent and adds property value.
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A new build taken from the client’s sketch to occupancy, with the architectural, structural and mechanical design done by one team.
Delivered
Built to the client’s own plan, with one team answering for every discipline.
Start a project like thisA two-storey garden suite laid out to get the most usable space from the footprint, designed and permitted as a rentable unit.
Delivered
Rental income and a higher property value.
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A dental office converted into a supermarket. Interior renovation, a new plumbing system and fire separations upgraded to the Ontario Fire Code.
Delivered
A dental office reopened as a supermarket, compliant with the Ontario Fire Code.
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A custom covered porch that turns the front of the house into usable outdoor space. Addition design and structural drawings for the permit.
Delivered
More usable outdoor space and added home value.
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Site grading to manage drainage and prepare the land for a new driveway, drawn as a grading plan for the site alteration permit.
Delivered
Drainage handled and the land ready for a new driveway.
Start a project like thisPhoto plates
Additions, basements, kitchens, new builds and commercial fit-outs. Drag a row to scrub through it, or open any photo full size.Tap any photo to see it full size.
21 platesResidential, commercial & new build
The drawing set
Framing schedules, wall assemblies, dimensions and a city review stamp, as issued. Client title blocks are trimmed off to protect the people we drew them for.
Drawing set
Sheets in this set
Sheet title
Existing basement plan
The existing house recorded before any design: beams, joists and bearing walls.
Drawing no.
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Service area
From the office we cover the whole GTA, north to Barrie and Orillia, east to Peterborough and Cobourg, west to Kitchener and Brantford, and down through Niagara.
46 across 8 regions
York Region
Toronto & Peel
Halton
Durham
Simcoe & Dufferin
Waterloo, Wellington & Brant
Hamilton, Niagara & Haldimand
Kawarthas & Northumberland
Past the 90-minute line
We've also completed projects in London and Strathroy. Farther out than that? Call (416) 990-9179 and ask.
Permits filed with municipalities including
Before you call
Anything we haven’t answered here, we’ll answer on a call. The first consultation is free.
(416) 990-9179To Aurora. The application goes to the Town of Aurora Building Division, not York Region, as a new building on your lot with a drawing set of its own. Aurora has a site alteration by-law, so we confirm with the Town whether the suite’s excavation falls under it or is covered by the building permit. We draw the suite, file it and answer the examiner’s comments until the permit is issued.
Only where the backyard is inside the regulated area of the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (LSRCA). Ontario’s O. Reg. 41/24 counts building a structure as development activity, so a suite near a watercourse, a wetland or a floodplain needs an LSRCA permit. The authority publishes its regulated-area maps, and we check them with the zoning.
Under Aurora’s Registration By-law 6660-24 for Additional Residential Units, a parcel of residential land with a detached house, semi-detached house or rowhouse may have up to three units, including the house itself. That can be the house with one or two Integrated Units, located within or attached to the house, and no Ancillary Unit, or the house with no more than one Integrated Unit and no more than one Ancillary Unit. An Ancillary Unit is a detached unit in the rear or interior side yard, designed to be portable, also called a garden suite, laneway house or tiny home. Every ARU must be registered with the Town.
Sometimes. Aurora’s Private Tree Protection Bylaw 5850-16 regulates the cutting and injuring of trees on private property. A permit is needed before removing a single heritage tree or a single tree in any heritage district, as described by the bylaw. No permit is needed to injure or remove up to two trees with a diameter greater than 20 cm (8 inches) in a 12-month period, or any tree 20 cm (8 inches) or less in diameter, and owners of larger properties may remove two trees per 0.25 ha of property in a 12-month period without a permit. We count the trees the suite and its service trench would touch against that allowance and check whether any is a heritage tree.
Yes. We take on garden suites across Aurora, including Aurora Heights and Regency Acres, about half an hour from our Richmond Hill office. The first consultation is free, by phone or on site.
Three things to start: property address and a survey, if you have one; whether the suite is for family or rent; and photos of the backyard and the side-yard access. Send those and we tell you what the Town of Aurora Building Division will ask for before we quote.
Two by-laws, read together. Registration By-law 6660-24 decides where the suite may stand, in the rear yard or an interior side yard, while your lot’s zone in Zoning By-law 6000-17 supplies the setbacks, the height and how much of the lot buildings may cover. We draw both sets of limits on your survey before the suite is sized, so the plan the Town of Aurora Building Division receives already fits them.
Yes. Under Ontario’s O. Reg. 299/19 anyone may live in an additional unit, related to you or not. In Aurora the suite also has to be registered with the Town under By-law 6660-24, and its building permit closes only once the inspections booked through CityView have passed, so we stay on the permit file until it closes and tell you what the registration needs.
Possibly, but the suite would be a new building in Aurora’s one Part V heritage conservation district, so we ask the Town what the designation expects of it before the design is settled. Trees matter more there as well: inside the district a single tree needs a permit before it comes down, which can decide where the suite and its service trench go.
Through CityView, where the Town of Aurora Building Division shows the application’s status and takes each inspection request once building starts. A garden suite is a new building on your lot, so its file holds a full drawing set and a site plan that places it from the survey, and the inspector checks the suite against that set at every stage the permit lists.
Searched & answered
Short answers to the garden suites questions people search most, and the broader topics they lead to.
Not covered here? Book a free consultationA garden suite is a self-contained home in the backyard of a house, detached from the main building, with its own kitchen, bathroom and entrance. Local by-laws set its size, setbacks and height, and those rules differ from one municipality to the next. Fine Engineering measures a lot against them at the start of every garden suite project.
There is no single figure. A garden suite is priced like a small house, and the lot then moves the total up or down through the length of the service run from the house and how easily machines can reach the yard. Fine Engineering prices each suite from a written scope after the zoning check, and the first consultation is free.
Most often because water crosses a property line, the ground slopes too gently away from the house, or the swales and elevations do not tie into the survey. Reviewers also return plans that lack erosion control, or an engineer’s stamp where one is required. Fine Engineering designs grading to each municipality’s own criteria and revises the plan to answer the reviewer’s comments.
Within limits the municipality sets. Its lot grading criteria give a minimum slope, so water runs away from the house, and a maximum, beyond which the change in level needs a retaining wall. The figures differ from one municipality to the next, so a plan follows the local criteria rather than a rule of thumb. Fine Engineering sets the slopes and any walls in one design.
The measures that keep soil on a site during construction: silt fence along the boundaries, a mud mat at the driveway, protection over catch basins and cover on stockpiles. Municipalities often make them a condition of a grading or site alteration approval and inspect for them. Fine Engineering puts erosion and sediment control on every grading plan it draws.
Often, yes. A tall retaining wall, or one that holds up a driveway, a building or a neighbour’s yard, generally needs a building permit and an engineered design, and a wall that changes the grade can also need a site alteration permit. Low garden walls usually do not. Fine Engineering confirms the height that triggers a permit on the site, then designs the wall and the grading around it.
Good to know
In Aurora the reviewer is the Town of Aurora Building Division. Every Aurora lot sets its own terms: rear-yard depth, setbacks, height limits, tree protection and the route for water, sewer and power decide whether a suite fits.
We walk the site with the survey, usually within a day or two of the call, before anything is drawn, then file the garden suites package to the Town of Aurora Building Division’s own checklist.
Aurora’s housing has established postwar neighbourhoods west of Yonge seeing infill rebuilds, with newer subdivisions in the Bayview secondary plan areas to the east. On the older postwar lots we check the yard depth and the existing service first; in the newer subdivisions the setbacks come first, measured against the yard each lot has.
Where a postwar house west of Yonge is coming down for an infill rebuild, the suite is easiest planned with the new house. Both draw on the same lot coverage and yards under Zoning By-law 6000-17, so placing the house with the suite in mind keeps enough rear yard for it. The suite’s water, sewer and power can also be sized at the street connection while that trench is open, instead of being dug again later.
By-law 6660-24 puts the Ancillary Unit in the rear yard or an interior side yard. On a corner lot, the side facing the second street is usually an exterior side yard under the zoning by-law, so it is not one of the places the suite can go. We mark which yard is which on your survey before choosing a spot, then check the setbacks for that yard in your zone of By-law 6000-17.
Contact us
Send us the address and we’ll tell you whether a suite fits the lot, on a free first call.
First consultation free(416) 990-9179