Ontario Land Division Rule Changes Since 2000: How We Got Here
Ontario’s rules governing land division, severances, and development have evolved significantly since the year 2000. These rules are rooted in the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, which sets out when and how land can be divided or developed in the province. Over the past 25 years, the Legislature has amended these rules many times to address issues like agricultural land protection, urban growth, streamlining approvals, and housing supply pressures. The result is a framework that looks very different today than it did in 2000, reflecting shifts in provincial priorities and land use policy.
In the early 2000s, the Planning Act and related policies still allowed relatively flexible severance practices, especially in rural areas. Municipalities regularly approved lot severances for residential use on rural lands, including areas designated as prime agricultural land. Over time, however, provincial policies—particularly through the Provincial Policy Statement—tightened restrictions on creating new non-farm residential lots in prime agricultural areas to protect farmland from fragmentation. Today, severances in such areas are far more limited and generally only permitted for agriculture-related purposes, like surplus dwelling lots for farm retirement.
Significant legislative changes also occurred through major housing and planning bills in the 2010s and 2020s. For example, the More Homes, More Choice Act made broad amendments to planning with the aim of boosting housing supply. While Bill 108 mainly impacted development charges, official plans, and community planning processes, it interacted with land division rules by altering how municipal planning authorities consider growth and housing in their decisions.
More recently, the More Homes Built Faster Act 2022 continued this trend by streamlining certain planning approvals and reshaping municipal roles in land-use decision-making. Among other things, Bill 23 removed third-party appeal rights for certain land severance and variance decisions and expanded public notice requirements, impacting how severances and lot creation are reviewed and contested.
In 2021, the Supporting Recovery and Competitiveness Act amended the Planning Act to clarify technical aspects of subdivision and part-lot control, such as preventing the automatic merging of lots following the death of a joint tenant. These kinds of changes may seem procedural, but they affect how existing land can be reconfigured and how planning authorities administer land division approvals.
Since 2000, Ontario’s land division rules have shifted from a more flexible early-2000s regime—where rural residential severances were relatively common—to a more structured framework emphasizing agricultural protection, housing supply, and streamlined provincial priorities. Municipalities and landowners now operate under layered policies that integrate the Planning Act, Provincial Policy Statement, and recent housing bills. One clear example of change is rural severances: a landowner in 2000 could, in many areas, obtain approval for new residential lots on rural or agricultural property. Under today’s rules, such severances are generally prohibited except in narrowly defined circumstances, reflecting a stronger emphasis on protecting farmland and concentrating growth in serviced settlement areas.
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