Politics of Land Developers and Development in the Toronto Region

Urban land developers are influential actors in the governance, planning, and transformation of urban land. Yet developers and the development industry are not well understood, and are seldom scrutinized critically in academic scholarship. This dissertation investigates the role of land developers in the governance and transformation of land at the urban-rural fringe in the Toronto region. Critical theories of property, land use conflict, planning, and urban geography illuminate social, spatial, and policy issues associated with the rapid transformation of land. Theories of interpretive institutionalism contribute richly to these urban theories by directing attention to the historical, economic, and cultural contexts within which state and non-state actors and institutions operate, and the importance of discourse, the roles of individual actors, and the flow of ideas across spaces and scales. Drawing on these theories, I carried out extensive case study research on suburban developers and land use conflict in an urban-rural fringe area of the Toronto region. I investigated ongoing relationships between developers and policy makers in the context of Ontario provincial greenbelt and growth plan legislation. I interviewed developers, municipal and provincial planners, civil society actors, and planning and development consultants. Drawing on these interviews, archival research, and media analysis, I show that the Toronto region development industry, as well as many individual developers and development firms, are in practice powerful governance actors, deeply influential to land use decisions and outcomes. The development industry downplays its power and influence, working hard to reframe its economic interests as public good interests. Developers exercise power in new and subtle ways, by operating as privileged governance partners through consensus-based consultations, and by maintaining close, interdependent personal and financial relationships with political leaders and decision makers. But developers are also wealthy corporate elites capable of exercising raw money power, often in response to, and at times generative of, land use conflict. This dissertation draws upon, in new ways, diverse theories that contribute to a greater understanding of the power of developers and the development industry over land use change.