(2022, October 30). A brief history of early apartment buildings in Toronto. BlogTO.
The emergence of purpose-built apartment buildings within Toronto was due to both their development and proliferation in other North American cities, as well as due to a rapid increase in the population of Toronto within the first decades of the 20th century that outpaced the availability of single-family dwellings.
Bylaw 6061 was altered in 1941 on the advice of the City Solicitor who considered it “was illegal for the Council to authorize violations of residential bylaws by passing amending by-laws, if such action was taken for the benefit of private individuals, and not in the general public interest.”
Dennis (1989) further discerns that post-1941 the practice continued but “whole blocks or streets, rather than individual lots, were specified whenever an exemption was made.”
https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/10/history-early-apartment-buildings-toronto/