Leasing Space to a Tutoring or Learning Centre in Toronto: Zoning, Use Clause and Parking First

A tutoring company wants your vacant unit. Whether that works under Toronto’s zoning depends less on the word “tutoring” and more on when the classes run and who sits in them.

I’m Arthur Zhao, a broker with AZ Real Estate Partners. Here is a call a Toronto landlord with an empty plaza or second-floor office unit can get: a tutoring operator saw the sign, and the first two questions are not about rent. How many parking spots come with the unit, and can we stay open until 8 p.m. on weekdays and all day Saturday?

Those are good questions, and they point at the right issues, just not in the order the tutor thinks. Before parking and hours, you need to know what kind of teaching this tenant actually runs. An after-school math program, a weekday daytime class for school-age kids, and an adult certification course can all describe themselves as a “learning centre.” Toronto’s zoning by-law and Ontario’s Education Act do not treat them the same way. So this piece walks through the three program shapes one at a time, then covers parking and the change-of-use permit, and ends with a checklist you can use on that first call.

Program shape 1: evening and weekend tutoring for school-age kids

This is the classic after-school tutor: math, English, science help or test prep, starting when the bell rings and running on Saturdays.

Which zoning use it falls under. Toronto’s Zoning By-law 569-2013 defines Education Use as “the use of premises for education or training,” other than a post-secondary school, a school regulated under the Education Act, or a religious education use. A tutoring business that is none of those three reads as Education Use on the definition’s wording. The City’s zoning review makes the call on a real file, not the definition alone.

Does it touch the private school definition? The Education Act defines a private school as an institution where instruction is given “at any time between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on any school day for five or more pupils who are of or over compulsory school age” in elementary or secondary subjects. If every session really sits outside that window, the time test in the definition is not met on its wording. Note the phrase “at any time”: one daytime session can change the analysis, which is why the program schedule belongs in the lease.

What it means for you as landlord. If the unit is in a CR or CL zone and the schedule stays after hours and on weekends, the zoning question is the simplest of the three shapes. The live issues become parking for drop-off and pick-up, and the hours your other tenants and your building can live with.

Program shape 2: weekday daytime classes for school-age kids

Some operators run full-day programs during school hours: a small academy, a daytime alternative to regular school, or daytime courses for teens.

Does it touch the private school definition? This is the shape the definition was written for. If the tenant teaches five or more pupils of or over compulsory school age, in elementary or secondary subjects, between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on a school day, and is not a school as the Act defines that word, the wording of the private school definition is met. The Act defines a school day as a day within the school year that is not a school holiday.

Section 16(1) of the Education Act then says no private school shall be operated in Ontario unless a notice of intention to operate has been submitted, and s. 16(2) requires that notice every year on or before September 1. Under s. 16(4), every person concerned in the management of a private school operated without it is liable to a fine of not more than $50 for every day it operates. That duty sits on the people running the school; section 16 does not mention landlords.

Which zoning use it falls under. If the program is a private school, it would move out of Education Use, whose definition excludes “a school regulated under the Education Act.” Toronto separately defines Private School as “premises used for elementary or secondary education regulated under the Education Act … but not publicly funded under the Act.” Which zones allow that use, and on what conditions, is a different list, covered in the CR vs CL comparison below.

What it means for you as landlord. You need a straight answer from the tenant on its daytime timetable before you rely on the Education Use permission. If the answer is “yes, some daytime classes,” the zoning check has to be done for Private School, not Education Use.

Program shape 3: adult or professional training

Coding courses, accounting exam prep, language classes for working adults, trade certification prep.

Which zoning use it falls under. Education Use covers “education or training,” so adult and professional training fits the definition’s wording unless the tenant is a post-secondary school, which the definition excludes. If the operator calls itself a college, ask what it is before you assume it is Education Use.

Does it touch the private school definition? The age test in the Education Act reads “of or over compulsory school age,” so the wording does not exclude adults on its own. What does the sorting is the subject test: elementary or secondary school courses of study. If an adult program teaches high-school-level subjects during the daytime on school days, the Act’s wording does not rule it out of the definition, and the tenant should confirm its position. If the curriculum is professional content that is not an elementary or secondary subject, the subject test is not met on its wording. The Act does not list which adult programs fall where.

What it means for you as landlord. Ask for the course list, not just the business name. An adult tenant is not automatically outside the private school question, but the subject list answers it quickly.

CR zone vs CL zone: what the by-law pages say

If the unit is not CR or CL

Employment zones need their own check. On the Employment Industrial (E) and Employment Heavy Industrial (EH) pages of By-law 569-2013 that I read, the term Education Use does not appear. That is not the same as a written prohibition, and it says nothing about other zones or site-specific exceptions. If your unit sits in an employment or industrial zone, get the City’s view on the specific address before you sign.

Two more by-law facts apply everywhere. First, the consolidation page says By-law 569-2013 was enacted on May 9, 2013 and has been appealed under s. 34(19) of the Planning Act, but the City’s Chief Building Official and Committee of Adjustment apply it to applications filed after enactment. Second, Chapter 900 holds site-specific exceptions. Both are reasons to confirm the actual parcel rather than rely on the zone name.

Parking: the Education Use rate is a ceiling

According to Table 200.5.10.1 of By-law 569-2013 (Chapter 200), Education Use is a Tier 2 use, and its rate is written as a maximum:

• Parking Zone A: maximum 0.8 spaces for each 100 m² of gross floor area
• Parking Zone B: maximum 1.0 per 100 m²
• All other areas of the City: maximum 3.5 per 100 m²

Where a rate is a ratio to floor area, Chapter 200 calculates it by multiplying the gross floor area of the use by the applicable rate. On that formula, a 200 m² tutoring unit outside Parking Zones A and B would have a ceiling of 7 spaces (200 ÷ 100 × 3.5). The Tier 2 entry for this use contains no minimum. Private School is in the same Tier 2 list, so the cap does not change if a program turns out to be a private school.

Which Parking Zone the lot sits in comes from the Parking Zone Overlay Map. Chapter 200 also has separate sections for accessible parking spaces, and Chapters 220 and 230 cover loading and bicycle parking. This article does not cover those, so ask the City about them for the specific site.

The practical result: the by-law is not going to tell you how many stalls this tenant needs. Parents dropping off at 4:15 is a site-management question you settle in the lease.

Change-of-use permit: confirm with the City

Section 10(1) of Ontario’s Building Code Act, 1992 says that even though no construction is proposed, no person shall change the use of a building or part of a building, “or permit the use to be changed,” if the change would result in an increase in hazard as determined under the building code, unless the chief building official has issued a permit. Under s. 10(2), the chief building official shall issue that permit unless the proposed use would contravene the Act, the building code or any other applicable law, the application is incomplete, or fees are unpaid.

Whether a move from retail or office to a tutoring use is an “increase in hazard” is a technical building code question, and the answer depends on the building. Do not guess it; ask the City’s building division with the actual floor plan and program.

One wording point is worth noticing. The subsection names two parties: whoever changes the use, and whoever permits it to be changed. Whether a landlord who signs the lease is the one who “permits” the change is not stated directly in the section. If a landlord could be that party, letting a tenant open before the City has answered would carry its own exposure. That is a reason to make the City’s answer a condition in the lease rather than a promise from the tenant.

Writing the use clause

This part is drafting practice rather than statute, and your lawyer should finalize the wording. What I would want the clause to carry for a learning-centre tenant:

• Name the program, not the industry. “Supplementary tutoring for students outside regular school hours” says far more than “education services.”
• Tie the use to a schedule. If your zoning analysis assumed no classes between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on school days, the clause should say so, and require consent before any daytime program is added.
• Put compliance on the tenant. Any Education Act filing, permit or licence the tenant’s program needs is the tenant’s obligation, with proof on request.
• Make zoning and permit confirmation a condition before possession or before the tenant opens.
• Allocate parking and drop-off explicitly, including peak times.

A clause written this way does double duty: it records the facts your zoning analysis relied on, and it gives you a clear breach if the program drifts.

Before you say yes to a tutoring or learning-centre tenant

Grouped by who you need the answer from.