The Opened Road Allowance

You will come across many areas where the road runs right along the water’s edge. This is an opened road allowance. It’s just like all the other road allowances surrounding the perimeter of navigable waters, but this time there’s an actual road.

The Province or the municipality have constructed a highway within the road allowance. The normal width of a lane of traffic is 11 feet. This means that you need 22 feet for a highway with one lane in each direction. Since you are building it within the 66 foot road allowance, you will have to move it away from the water’s edge in many cases. You will also want to generally keep it as straight as possible, otherwise it will not be useable.

An excellent example of this type of highway along a road allowance will be found in the Jackson’s Point area on the south shores of Lake Simcoe. You will note in this area, that all the cottages are setback from the road, and that there may be some space between the travelled portion of the highway and the water’s edge to have a small deck and a dock.

Brian Madigan LL.B., Broker
www.OntarioRealEstateSource.com