Garden Suites in Newmarket

To Newmarket. The application goes to the Town of Newmarket Building Division, not York Region, as a new building on your lot with a drawing set of its own. Newmarket 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. Newmarket’s unit by-law also keeps additional units off floodplain the LSRCA identifies, so on a lot near a creek that mapping decides whether there can be a suite at all.

Under Newmarket’s By-law 2026-10, a residential lot can have up to two additional residential units along with the main home: either two inside the house, or one inside and one in a separate detached building on the same lot. They are allowed in detached, semi-detached, link, row house and townhouse dwellings, but not in some areas, such as the Environmental Protection Open Space zone or floodplain identified by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority.

Yes, at 20 cm across or more. Under Newmarket’s Private Tree Protection By-law 2022-10, you generally need a Private Tree Permit before injuring or destroying a tree on private property that is 20 centimetres or more in diameter at breast height, measured 1.4 metres above the ground. Trees covered by the Town’s Woodlot By-law or York Region’s Forest Conservation By-law are among the exceptions.

Yes. We take on garden suites across Newmarket, including Historic Downtown and Glenway, 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 Newmarket Building Division will ask for before we quote.

Yes on both counts. By-law 2026-10 allows one additional unit in a detached building on a residential lot, and under O. Reg. 299/19 the person living there does not have to be a relative. Renting it is legal once the Town of Newmarket Building Division has issued the suite’s building permit and passed its final inspection.

Only if your lot is in one of the Urban Centres, which follow Urban Centres Zoning By-law 2019-06; everywhere else the suite is measured against Comprehensive Zoning By-law 2010-40. The governing by-law sets the setbacks, height and lot coverage, so we confirm which one applies and mark its lines on the survey before sizing the suite. The Town of Newmarket Building Division reviews the plan against those same lines.

It can shape how the suite looks, so we raise a lot inside the district with the Town before the elevations are settled. Lower Main Street South is the one Heritage Conservation District Newmarket has under Part V of the Ontario Heritage Act. Behind a house outside it, a suite needs only what any Newmarket suite needs: room under By-law 2026-10, a zoning check and a building permit.

Yes. Newmarket takes permit applications through its Development Portal and lets applicants track them, so once we file the suite you can follow its review by the Town of Newmarket Building Division. Because the suite is a new building, its file carries more than a renovation would: structural and architectural sets, a site plan that places it from the survey, and grading where the yard changes.