Floodplain & Conservation-Authority Land: The Permit on Top of the Permit

Sometimes, but not as a given, and never without the Conservation Authority’s involvement. Land in a floodplain is treated as hazardous land and falls under the authority’s regulation, so building there requires their permit in addition to your municipal building permit. Depending on where the lot sits in the floodplain and how severe the flood and erosion risk is, the authority may approve a home set back from the hazard, possibly with floodproofing or a raised building elevation, or it may refuse the build entirely where the risk is too great. Conservation Authority refusals of floodplain homes have been upheld by the courts, so this is a real possibility, not a formality. The safe approach is to confirm with the authority exactly what, if anything, they will allow on that specific lot before you buy, rather than assuming a floodplain lot is automatically a building lot.

Start with your local Conservation Authority, since they administer the regulated areas in their watershed. Most publish an interactive property or regulation map where you can search the lot’s address and see whether any part of it falls within a floodplain, wetland, shoreline, or other regulated area, and the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, for example, offers exactly this kind of tool. The map gives you the general picture, but the reliable answer comes from contacting the authority directly, describing what you want to build, and asking whether a permit is required and whether your plan is feasible on that lot. It is also worth asking the municipality, since planning staff often know which properties carry hazard constraints. Do this checking before you remove conditions, because regulation can affect not just where you build but whether you can build at all.

Section 28 refers to the part of Ontario’s Conservation Authorities Act that gives Conservation Authorities the power to regulate development in and around natural hazards such as floodplains, wetlands, watercourses, shorelines, and unstable slopes. A Section 28 permit, now administered through Ontario Regulation 41/24 and Part VI of the Act, which came into effect on April 1, 2024, is the approval you need from the authority to build, place a structure, grade or fill land, or alter a watercourse within a regulated area. It is separate from your municipal building permit, and you generally need both. The authority assesses whether your proposed work could affect flooding, erosion, dynamic beaches, pollution, or the conservation of land, and it can approve, approve with conditions, or refuse. If a lot you are considering is in a regulated area, factor the Section 28 process, its studies, and its timeline into your plans.

No. Being in a regulated area does not automatically mean you cannot build, and many regulated lots are developed successfully every year with the right siting and design. The authority’s job is to manage risk, so on a given lot they may approve a house positioned away from the hazard, sometimes with measures like floodproofing, a raised elevation, or limits on grading and fill near the feature. What they will not do is wave through a build that sits in a high-risk location or worsens flooding or erosion, and in those cases they can and do refuse. The outcome depends heavily on the specific lot, the feature involved, and how the project is designed. That is why the smart move is to engage the authority early, find out where and how they would allow a building, and design to those rules, rather than buying first and hoping for approval afterward.

Beyond the usual cost of building, a regulated lot typically adds a few things. There is the Conservation Authority permit itself and the review process that goes with it, and the authority often requires supporting studies, which can include a geotechnical or slope-stability assessment, a floodplain or hydraulic analysis, an environmental or natural-heritage report, or a floodproofing design, depending on the hazard. These studies cost money and take time, and the approval timeline is generally longer than a straightforward lot. There may also be design measures, such as raising the building or special foundations, that add construction cost, plus limits on how much of the lot you can use once setbacks from the hazard are applied. Finally, a hazard designation can affect financing and resale. None of this necessarily makes a regulated lot a bad buy, but you should price these realities in before you commit rather than be surprised by them later.

Not necessarily. Some of the most desirable lots in our region are near water or other natural features, and they can be wonderful places to build a home. The risk is not the regulation itself but buying blind, because a regulated lot carries the possibility of refusal, extra studies, a smaller buildable area, higher cost, and a longer timeline, and occasionally an outright inability to build. The way to buy one wisely is to do your homework first: confirm with the Conservation Authority whether and where they would allow a build, understand the conditions and studies they would require, budget the added cost and time, and keep your offer conditional until you have answers in writing. Done that way, a regulated lot can be a great purchase. Done blindly, it can be a very expensive mistake, which is the whole reason to check before you buy rather than after.

It depends on the watershed your lot sits in, because Conservation Authorities are organized by watershed rather than by municipality. Across much of Simcoe County and the southern Georgian Bay area, the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority, or NVCA, is the relevant authority, and it reviews development near rivers, streams, wetlands, floodplains, and the Georgian Bay shoreline in its jurisdiction. Neighbouring areas fall under other authorities depending on which river system and shoreline they drain to, so the correct authority for a specific lot is determined by its location. The simplest way to confirm is to look the property up on the authority’s mapping tool or call them, and they will tell you whether the lot is in their jurisdiction and whether any part of it is regulated. If you are not sure which authority applies, the municipality can usually point you to the right one.