Toronto Fraternity and Sorority Zoning to Proceed
It was back in June that Toronto’s Executive Committee received a letter containing an official request to label fraternity and sorority houses as multi-tenant properties, and it was then that the committee began to seriously consider how they would go about it.
Toronto officials will soon turn out a comprehensive list of multi-tenant properties in the city and possible alterations that could be applied to those properties. The City Council will review and vote on this list at the end of the month. It would come as no surprise if the maintenance of those houses - including parking spaces, waste management, and maximum tenant capacity - must abide by a set of unwavering rules.
Huron Sussex, Bay Cloverhill, Grange, and Harbord Village are just a few of the neighbourhoods that have recently encountered problems related to the behaviour and waste production of the tenants in fraternity and sorority houses. This is precisely why many officials feel that new rules about house conduct that preserve the health and safety of everyone in the area need to be introduced. The university houses will have to undergo a licensing process to continue their work and follow the regulations that come with the license.
There aren’t many city officials who are opposed to the new plan, and for good reason. In all regards, it’s meant to preserve the well-being of the city’s inhabitants and keep extracurricular university programs in check. Those who support the proposed regulations pointed to complaints the city receives annually about misconduct occurring in fraternity and sorority houses. Although those complaints are settled with the university programs’ reassurance that they’ll behave well in the future, that reassurance only lasts a certain amount of time.
The university associated to the fraternity or sorority in question rarely monitors its outside activity, as the parents of most fraternity and sorority members would expect. In reality, the University of Toronto stays out of the goings-on of the clubs as much as possible, which is mainly due to the fact that fraternities and sororities are specific about who they recruit. It’s been this way since the 1960s.
Currently, the houses used for Greek association activity don’t follow the rules of multi-tenant properties, included the aforementioned house license. With this license, the property is forced to stay up to date with all safety and health regulations necessary to maintain a suitable multi-tenant living environment. Fraternity and sorority houses that aren’t up to snuff can be dealt with by the city in the near future if the new regulations are approved and implemented.
Representatives of the fraternity and sorority governing groups explained that each organisation functions independently, abiding by its own set of rules to accommodate its members, activities, and location. Many of them are reportedly open to acquiring a large governing body that would be in charge of all fraternities and sororities. For now, the multi-tenant housing issue and its details remain in question, and that isn’t expected to change until the vote is cast later on this month.
