Iceberg homes untouched by Toronto city council for now

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On the issue of iceberg homes, Toronto will go with the floe for a while longer.

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City council has told Toronto’s top planners to report back on how new rules meant to guide iceberg homes might affect infill development, swimming pools and small apartment buildings.

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The luxury homes, which feature so-called iceberg basements that are much wider or deeper than the above-ground elements of the home might suggest, have the potential for environmental disruption, affecting plant growth and water flow, councillors have been told.

Gord Perks, the Parkdale-High Park councillor who chairs city hall’s planning and housing committee, said a number of his colleagues had suggested to him that the proposal before them needed to be studied further.

That proposal, Perks said at Wednesday’s council meeting, “started out a while back as being about iceberg homes, but has since grown into trees and pools, and stars and fields and rocks and rainbows, and all kinds of other things.”

Myriad factors being considered

Councillor Rachel Chernos Lin added yet another concern when she asked Perks if the way his motion was phrased would stop her from asking about how the use of permeable surfaces in parking spaces might clash with electric vehicles.

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Perks said his motion to refer the matter back to planners wouldn’t be an issue. “It says go do additional work on these, as well as bring back the original report,” Perks said.

Councillors had been asked to consider myriad factors, such as on-street parking and the definition of landscaping, with the ostensible goal of preserving Toronto’s tree canopy.

There appeared to be broad consensus on sending the proposal back for more study. The move passed with a simple show of hands rather than a recorded vote and no councillors other than Perks and Chernos Lin rose to speak about the idea.

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Iceberg? Let us!

Richard Wengle, a Toronto architect who has worked on iceberg homes, told the Toronto Sunbefore council’s meeting that he and other industry experts have spoken to city bureaucrats about how the luxury houses work.

He said iceberg basements have been in Toronto for a long time and they add living space to a home in a way that blends in with a neighbourhood far better than adding a third or fourth storey. He said there are “techniques,” such as those used in condo development, to reroute water and allow plant growth even with a supersized basement.

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But one of the constituents in Chernos Lin’s Don Valley West Ward said iceberg homes have been “an affront” to her neighbourhood.

Shannon Rancourt, with the Hoggs Hollow Tree Watch neighbourhood group, said they’re often ugly and the construction required to dig out a huge multimillion-dollar basement drives neighbours nuts. She started fighting against iceberg homes after a centuries-old tree was cut down during a nearby renovation, she told the Toronto Sun.

More cover for tree growth?

Restrictions on swimming pools are in the conversation because of city council’s commitment to encourage tree growth in Toronto’s backyards. That has led to backlash as a handful of written objections were sent to council by those who make their living in the swimming pool and hot tub industry.

While a relatively new phenomenon in Toronto, even years before the 2020s, iceberg homes had become a fact of life for the rich and famous in London. A one-time frenzy in the British capital has since passed as lawmakers moved to restrict the construction of glitzy mega-basements.

The bigger basements can be used for just about anything, such as storage space or an underground garage, or even eye-popping luxuries like indoor pools or basketball courts.

Wednesday’s meeting of council was a special one-day session, taking place ahead of this month’s meeting on the 2026 city budget, to be held Feb. 10.

jholmes@postmedia.com

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