Planning institutions and the politics of urban development: The Ontario Municipal Board and the City of Toronto, 2000-2006

This thesis examines what effect the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), a provincial planning appeals body, has on the behaviour and relationships of actors involved in the politics of urban development in Toronto. More broadly, it examines the role planning institutions play in shaping the politics of urban development in North American cities, and whether the local political economy approach to studying urban politics can address and accommodate the role such planning institutions play. Although, multiple methods of analysis are employed throughout, the majority of this thesis relies on quantitative analysis of OMB appeals, and in-depth case studies. The findings from the quantitative data provide a background for the case study analysis. The eight case studies examine a variety of development proposals resulting in OMB appeals. Each case compares and contrasts the behaviour of Toronto's political actors against the behaviour typified in American local political economy literature.;The local political economy approach to urban politics provides a powerful means for cross jurisdictional comparison of the roles of planning institutions in urban development politics, but current local political economy theories define constraints, resources, and actors' interests too narrowly to account for the full range of divergence among cities in North America.;Keywords. Toronto, Ontario Municipal Board, urban politics, urban development, planning experts, neighbourhood associations, developers, local politicians, political behaviour, resources, planning institutions, local political economy, urban regime theory, growth machine theory.;The OMB erodes local politicians' authority over decision-making, but in doing so provides local politicians with flexibility in decision-making, allowing them to evade responsibility for unpopular decisions. In addition, it provides both neighbourhood associations and developers with an additional resource, the threat of an appeal to the OMB. Most importantly, the Board's focus on planning expertise provides planning experts in the city with the resource of legitimacy, and the City Planning Division with the additional resource of autonomy, by insulating it from the whims of City Council.