The Rise and Fall of the Ontario Parkway Belt

Sam Robinson

ABSTRACT

Ontario's last attempt at large-scale regional planning was the parkway plan established in the 1970s. Ontario Regulation 472/73, implemented in 1973, had designated lands as a parkway belt, a natural buffer zone of open land between the municipalities that surround Toronto. In 1996, the regulation was quietly repealed and highway 407 built over the only remaining parkway lands. This article examines the failure of the parkway plan. The author argues that the plan was unsuccessful because, by failing to provide for compensation for landowners whose property values were affected by the down-zoning, it created significant economic incentives for landowners to seek amendments to the regulations. At the same time, the plan led to economic gains from new amenities installed under the plan, which made the parkway a more attractive place for households to settle. The mix of losses and gains created pressure for amendment to the plan that the government was ultimately unable to resist. This is unfortunate because, as the author demonstrates, parkway-style regional planning is both necessary and feasible.

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Citation: (2000) 58(2) U.T. Fac. L. Rev. 157.
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