21st Century (2000–present)

Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt

2005 · Canada · North America – Canada · Garden city, decentralization, and the town-country synthesis · Planned by Province of Ontario
Map of the Ontario Greenbelt (legislated 2005) showing the extent of protected greenspace, farmland and the Niagara Escarpment / Oak Ridges Moraine wrapping the Greater Golden Horseshoe — i.e. the act
Map of the Ontario Greenbelt (legislated 2005) showing the extent of protected greenspace, farmland and the Niagara Escarpment / Oak Ridges Moraine wrapping the Greater Golden Horseshoe — i.e. the act · cc-by-sa

Core idea

Protected landscape + growth plan

Why it matters

Largest greenbelt in North America

Description

The Greater Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt was established by the Province of Ontario through the Greenbelt Act and Greenbelt Plan of 2005, permanently protecting a broad arc of countryside, farmland and natural systems around Toronto and the western Lake Ontario urban region. Covering roughly two million acres including the Niagara Escarpment and Oak Ridges Moraine, it was paired with the Places to Grow growth plan, which directed future urbanisation into designated centres and intensification corridors inside the belt.

Significance

The Ontario Greenbelt is generally described as the largest of its kind in North America and is a landmark in translating the garden-city and greenbelt tradition to a continental metropolitan region. Its coupling of landscape protection with a statutory growth plan is studied as a model of regional growth management, while persistent political pressure to open greenbelt land for housing keeps it at the centre of debates on containment, land supply and affordability.

What shaped it

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →
hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.