Oakville has banned houses on its busiest transit corridor

What happened

Oakville Council has adopted a Town-initiated amendment that changes what may be built along the north side of Dundas Street. By-law 2026-105 adopts Official Plan Amendment 341, and Zoning By-law Amendment 2026-106 implements it, both under the Planning Act. The lands affected are in the Dundas Urban Core area, in wards 6 and 7.

The amendment does two things. Within 50 metres of the Dundas Street right of way, the only building types permitted are apartment buildings, mixed-use buildings and commercial buildings. And any building on those lands containing a residential use must be at least six storeys.

The Town's stated purpose is to support bus rapid transit along Dundas Street. The amendment clarifies a policy introduced through an earlier amendment, Official Plan Amendment 321, which had said that stand-alone townhouses would not be permitted next to Dundas Street, and adds the height floor that the earlier policy left unstated.

Key facts

Why it matters

Municipalities usually regulate the maximum a builder may put on a site. This does the opposite. It sets a floor, and on a strip of land 50 metres deep it removes the ground-related housing types that most of Oakville is built from. A builder who owns land facing Dundas Street can no longer propose townhouses there at all.

The reason is the road. Dundas Street is one of two corridors Oakville Transit has identified for a future Frequent Transit Network at 15-minute headways or better, and the Town's amendment names bus rapid transit as its purpose. Transit of that kind needs riders within walking distance of the stop, and a townhouse frontage produces a fraction of the households an apartment frontage does on the same land.

The Town also frames the change as conformity with the Provincial Planning Statement, 2024, which directs planning authorities to accommodate significant growth in strategic growth areas, support the transit network, and identify the appropriate type and scale of development in those areas.

What happens next

The practical test will be what arrives at the Town on those lands next. The North Oakville Secondary Plans Review is where the Town publishes the supporting material for this change, and the Town's active development application pages are where any proposal on the corridor will appear.