# A mapping of development potential in Toronto

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2019-01-19

employment-lands, land-use-policy, major-transit-station, mapping, mixed-use, official-plan, ratio-city, regeneration, toronto, uncategorized, urban-growth, visualization, zoning, zoning-bylaw

---

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/2fca4836068319e53c3f34e73c89fb4f.png)

I first met [Monika Jaroszonek](https://www.linkedin.com/in/monika-jaroszonek-294a26126/?originalSubdomain=ca) in 2017, right before she started [RATIO.CITY](https://twitter.com/RatioCity). Since then she has developed some pretty incredible tools for the city building space.

Yesterday the company published [this interactive visualization](https://toronto.ratio.city/dev-potential) looking at development potential across the City of Toronto. The mapping looks for the following:

*   Land that has a Mixed Use, Apartment or Regeneration designation in the City of Toronto’s [Official Plan](https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/planning-development/official-plan-guidelines/official-plan/)  
    
*   Land that is located within a Provincially designated [Urban Growth Centre](http://placestogrow.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=430&Itemid=14#2.2.3)  
    
*   Land that is located within 500m of a [Major Transit Station](http://placestogrow.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=430&Itemid=14#2.2.4)  
    

The tool then ranks each development site – AAA, AA, A – according to how many of the above criteria it meets.

It also flags land that it refers to as “Missed Opportunity.” These are lands located within 500m of a Major Transit Station, but that are designated as Neighbourhoods (considered stable) or Employment (whole other discussion).

Based on this filter, about 5.6% of the City’s land is a “Missed Opportunity” and about 1.2% is AAA.

When you look at the visualization, that is one of the first things you will probably notice; a lot of our transit infrastructure is currently underutilized as a result of land use policies.

_Image: RATIO.CITY_

---

*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/a-mapping-of-development-potential-in-toronto)*