Is a Grimsby address in the Greenbelt or the Niagara Escarpment Plan area?

The Province's Protected Countryside boundary sheet 42 is titled for the Town of Grimsby, sheet 3 of the 2017 additions to the Protected Countryside covers land in the Town of Grimsby, and Urban River Valley sheet 48 covers Fifty Creek in the City of Hamilton and the Town of Grimsby; the Province says the Greenbelt Plan's policies apply only to publicly owned land in the Urban River Valley areas. The Greenbelt Plan's Schedule 1 counts the Protected Countryside, the Urban River Valleys and the Niagara Escarpment Plan Area as parts of the Greenbelt Area. The Town's Official Plan says the Greenbelt Plan surrounds much of the Urban Settlement Area and that Grimsby's Urban Area is delineated as a Town/Village in the Greenbelt Plan.

The Niagara Escarpment Plan's Map 1 covers Niagara Region, and the plan's office consolidation of March 11, 2026 lists the Town of Grimsby among the municipalities with an Urban Area designation, where urban development sits on or next to the Escarpment. The Town's zoning by-law also says additional residential units in the Niagara Escarpment Plan Area are subject to that plan's policies. The Niagara Escarpment Commission says land in its Area of Development Control may need a Development Permit from the Commission, and its interactive map shows whether a property is in that area. A result from the provincial layers says whether an address falls inside a mapped area and which designation; it is a planning boundary, not a statement about what a particular lot may be used for.

• Ontario Greenbelt maps: the Province's boundary sheets for the Protected Countryside and the Urban River Valley areas, Schedule 1 and the interactive map
• Protected Countryside sheet 42: the boundary sheet for the Town of Grimsby (PDF)
• Urban River Valley sheet 48: Fifty Creek in the City of Hamilton and the Town of Grimsby (PDF)
• Niagara Escarpment Plan: the Niagara Escarpment Commission's page for the plan, with the office consolidation of March 11, 2026
• Niagara Escarpment Plan maps: the Commission's plan maps, Map 1 for Niagara Region (PDF)
• Development Control (Regulations 826/90 and 828/90): the Commission's Area of Development Control, its permits and its interactive map
• Official Plan, November 2025 consolidation: the Town's Official Plan, with its Greenbelt and Niagara Escarpment policies (PDF)

The Greenbelt, Moraine and Escarpment check runs for any Ontario address, in the free check and in the full report, from the Province's layers, and names the designation where one applies. It reads the mapped boundaries; it is not a reading of the Town's Official Plan or zoning for a lot.

Free check: pick “Greenbelt, Moraine, Escarpment” See the sample report