Evaluation of planning and management approaches for limiting residential encroachment impacts within forest edges: A Southern Ontario case study

Evaluation of planning policy for protecting green infrastructure from loss and degradation due to residential encroachment

“…In addition, policy tools appear to be focused on protecting natural systems from development into alternative urban land uses, and the anticipated impacts of development, not on protecting natural systems from the impacts resulting from the use of the adjacent developed land. This finding is supported by a study that found Ontario municipal development planners believed they were required to ensure developers mitigated largely short term construction-related impacts of development versus those occurring following development (McWilliam et al, 2013).…”

“…These less authoritative policies and practices were not evaluated in this study, but were the focus of a previous study (See McWilliam et al, 2013).…”

“…A previous study of local municipal policies within Southern Ontario municipalities based on interviews with Ontario municipal planners, landscape architects, bylaw officers and forest managers, found an awareness of only a few explicit municipal policy or practice goals, objectives, tools, and bylaws for protecting green infrastructure from impacts associated with residential encroachment following development (McWilliam et al, 2012). In addition they identified many barriers to their implementation (McWilliam et al, 2013), including a lack of awareness and priority placed on addressing this issue. Local level policies are often driven by those within more authoritative policy documents, such as official and secondary plans in Ontario.…”