The evolution of Ontario's early urban land use planning regulations, 1900-1920

Abstract

In the first two decades of this century, the Province of Ontario enacted legislation which, for the first time, permitted municipalities to engage in urban land use planning activities. Prior to the turn of the century, municipal regulation of urban development was limited to a number of fairly specific nuisance, public health, and building bylaws. These generally applied only to individual buildings, not to the development or redevelopment of urban land nor to the regulation of different land use categories. Landowners were virtually free to build what they wanted, where they wanted. The dynamics of the land market by itself provided the governing logic to the urban development process. By 1912 Ontario had adopted enabling legislation permitting the larger municipalities in the province to regulate some aspects of development in residential areas, an early form of zoning, and to regulate some aspects of the subdivision of suburban land, an early form of subdivision control. A few years later, in 1917, the Ontario Legislature adopted more general planning legislation, the Planning and Development Act. Though this early enabling legislation satisfied some municipal and civic leaders, the early town planning movement in the province was disappointed with its limited scope, but was completely unsuccessful in having broader enabling legislation adopted. This paper reviews the origin and evolution of the earliest urban land use planning enabling legislation adopted by the Province of Ontario. It focuses on the three key planning-related statutes adopted prior to 1920: the amendments to the Municipal Act permitting municipal adoption of development restrictions in residential districts; the first planning act, the 1912 City and Suburbs Plans Act; and the slightly broader planning statute adopted in 1917, the Planning and Development Act. A detailed examination of the factors leading to the adoption of this enabling legislation provides insight into the social and political dynamics which influenced the specific approach to urban planning during this period. Paralleling this review is a consideration of how far Ontario's largest municipality, Toronto, implemented the enabling legislation; though limited to only this one city, it is helpful in identifying the extent to which the provincial legislation was practical and able to be implemented. Early planning legislation adopted in other provinces during the same period was generally not implemented. It is important to make this distinction because there has al ways been a large gap between what the planning movement advocated and what was actually put into effect. In some cases legislation is adopted to pacify special interests even though there is no intention of implementing it or is even no actual need for it. Toronto's urban planning activity is also important for understanding the evolution of the provincial legislation because municipal interests in Toronto often provided the initiative to the provincial legislation. The first section summarizes the land use planning regulations, both provincial legislation and Toronto municipal bylaws, which were in place at the turn of the century. The following three sections review the evolution of each of the three major planning-related statutes adopted between 1900 and 1920 and the extent to which Toronto made use of them: the zoning amendments to the Municipal Act; the 1912 City and Suburbs Plans Act; and the 1917 Planning and Development Act.