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

Two provincial plans reach into Hamilton. The Greenbelt Plan's Protected Countryside covers the rural lands around the urban area, and the Greenbelt Plan area also takes in the lands under the Niagara Escarpment Plan, which follows the Escarpment through the middle of the city. The Province publishes the Greenbelt boundary and land-use designations as maps and open data; the Niagara Escarpment Commission publishes its plan maps and an interactive map that says whether a property is inside the Plan area and whether it sits in the Area of Development Control, where the Commission, not the City, issues development permits.

So the result from the provincial layer says whether an address falls inside the mapped Greenbelt Area, the Escarpment Plan area, or both, and which designation. It is a planning boundary, not a statement about what a particular lot may be used for; that sits in the plan text and the City's zoning.

• Ontario Greenbelt maps: the Province's boundary sheets, land-use designations and interactive map
• Niagara Escarpment Plan: interactive map: the Commission's map of the Plan area and the Area of Development Control
• Niagara Escarpment Plan maps: the Plan's map sheets, to be read with the Plan text

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; whether a lot is inside the Area of Development Control is the Commission's map to read.

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