Home records, explained › Water and flooding
What is a conservation authority regulated area?
Each of Ontario's 36 conservation authorities maps the land it regulates under the Conservation Authorities Act: flood plains, river and lake shorelines, wetlands and their surroundings, and unstable slopes. Building, grading or filling inside a regulated area needs the authority's permit as well as the municipal building permit.
Report check: Conservation authority regulated area. Entry reviewed 20 Oct 2026; each source below shows its own data date.
How a report shows itsample, made-up home
The back 12 m of the lot is inside the regulated area.
- Part of lot affected
- Rear 12 m
- Reason mapped
- Valley slope near Sample Creek
Where we read it
- Not in any report: where to look
Published byConservation Ontario
Conservation authorities from 1 February 2027
Under the Conservation Authorities Act as amended in 2026, today's authorities are to join regional ones on 1 February 2027 or a later date set by regulation, as each town's flood page says. Each box shows the authorities our town pages name and the towns whose pages name it; a town with land under two authorities is in both.
-
- Central Lake Ontario authority
- Toronto and Region authority
joinCentral Lake OntarioRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Conservation Halton
- Credit Valley authority
- Hamilton authority
- Niagara Peninsula authority
joinWestern Lake OntarioRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Grey Sauble authority
- Lake Simcoe Region authority
- Nottawasaga Valley authority
joinLake HuronRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Catfish Creek authority
- Grand River authority
- Kettle Creek authority
- Long Point Region authority
joinEastern Lake ErieRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Cataraqui Conservation
- Ganaraska Region authority
- Kawartha Conservation
- Lower Trent Conservation
- Otonabee Conservation
- Quinte Conservation
joinEastern Lake OntarioRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Essex Region authority
- Lower Thames Valley authority
- Upper Thames River authority
joinWestern Lake ErieRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Conservation Sudbury
- Mattagami Region authority
- North Bay-Mattawa authority
joinNortheastern OntarioRegional Conservation Authority
-
- Lakehead Region authority
becomesNorthwestern OntarioRegional Conservation Authority
What the record is
The regulated area is wider than the flood plain itself. It takes in a buffer around watercourses and wetlands and the hazard lands along shorelines and steep slopes, so a lot can be regulated without being in a flood plain. The authority's map is the record; each authority publishes its own, most of them online.
Our reports don't read this map: the authorities' mapping licences don't allow it to be copied into a product like this one. The report still lists the check, and its line points to Conservation Ontario's list, where the authority for the address and its own map can be found.
Where it runs
Regulated areas are mapped by each conservation authority, and most don't allow their maps in reports like this one. The conservation authority for this address can say whether the lot is regulated (a permit is then needed to build or grade); many have an online map.
Sources
Look it up for one address
No record we may copy answers this check, so neither the free check nor the full report reads it. The full report still lists it, with the line above: where to look for that address. The order form's “Creek or wetland area” dealbreaker reads the other records in its group.
Public-record information, not legal, financial, insurance or inspection advice. Records change and can be incomplete, and this page describes the records, not any particular home. Spotted an error, or have a question about this record? Email [email protected]; we answer from the record, and corrections are listed on the guide index. What we cover, city by city.