Un-opened Road Allowances

[Woody]

I wondered if someone can give me some information about road allowances?

Background:  I've been keeping my eye open for woodlots.  Most that I've come across are landlocked.  Some have un-opened road allowances to or very near the property.

Question:  What's the deal with un-opened allowances?  Is the property within the allowance owned by the township?  Can it be used to access the property?

[gap]

A closed road allowance is usually some sort of access area that is not owned, meaning anyone can trespass...it's effectively crown land.   However, some people have sole options to purchase road allowances.  For example, in cottage country there is a shore road allowance in front of every waterfront lot in Ontario.   This is an old government law declaring all shore waterfront not able to be owned.  I guess the idea was that everyone should be free to have access to the water.   Many people who own waterfront property are not actually aware of the fact that they do not own 66' from the shore into their property.   In recent years, townships (probably for extra cash) have been declaring the shore road allowance in front of certain properties as excess.   Once that's done (there's a process of town council of course), the owner of the land behind it is free to petition that the land (i.e. shore road allowance) be closed (bought by them).   In this way, it is completely and wholly owned by the landowner behind so no one can cross their shoreline.    In most cases, it doesn't really matter because you can't really walk on the shore in front of someone's property anyway as you would have to cross their property to get to it or other people's property.   This is the case in the Kawarthas, Muskoka, Haliburton, etc.   
Where this original law has really shown it's worth is in places like Wasaga Beach.   Nobody owns the shore road allowance there and this has kept the entire beach open to everyone.  Houses are set back from the water, even the ones directly on the water, but they actually don't own the property.  Anyone can put their beach chairs directly in front of your property.   Those types of beaches have never allowed people to close (purchase) their shore road allowances, so they all remained unopened. 
In cases where there is no beach, there is sometimes a thin strip of land between two sets of lots of say, ten or twelve.   The county or province years ago may have set aside these occasional strips in case they wanted access and/or wanted to provide public access to another road, a water area, or other piece of crown land.   These road allowances are never closed (purchased) so they maintain ownership and everyone's allowed to pass.   Normally in these situations, the road allowances remain (and have remained) unopened for years and are destined to remain that way so access is there. 
BASICALLY, if there's road allowance to a property, you should ask who owns it and who is allowed to close (or purchase) if anyone.   The best answer is you cannot close this road allowance as the county/township, etc. owns it and will not declare it surplus.  This means you can use it forever to crossover.
Even if you buy a property and someone tries to close (purchase) this in the future, all neighbours are allowed to veto it, so that's good too.
Hope this is comprehensible.
Cheers!

[jreist]

This is frustrating for us for we are looking for land for a Hobby Farm.  We have found many properties listed through Tax Sale and regular MLS that offer acreage at low prices only to find that the only access is through an Un-opened road allowance.  An Unopened road allowance is just that it is a line on a map. An example was 203 acres off of Hwy 41 Hasting Twp., when we contacted the agent it was access from an un-opened road allowance between Lot 20 and 21 and was two Lots over from the Hwy a distance of over 2 miles through bush.

We must remember that there was not always roads and concessions, settlers came following rivers and stream and travelling on trails that were cut through the forest.  They cleared the land an built there homes where they found a good place to settle. I believe it was in the early 1900's that they started to use Lots and Concessions, roads were put in using a similar grids. When I travel out into the country around Kitchener I see centuryfarms with long laneways going way back from the Hwy.

In the the sale at TYENDINAGA there is 4 properties that are vacant land 3 of which have un opened road allowance.  We were looking at the property by Roslin, and after investigation we found it was at the North end of the Lot with an un opened road allowance. Looking at the Topo maps I can see that Tracey Rd does turn into a trail that goes into the area with some structures along this trail. Under more investigation I see that the trail has gaps, my presumption is that the land was settled and people lived there at one time but the land was wither un-workable or they were not on a road and left to find land closer to town.  If anyone goes down this road tell me what you find.

[Frank]

If you are looking for a hundred acres of inaccessible land take a look at the Township of Whitestone sale. 

Parcel 10,094, Parry Sound North Section, being Lot 8, Concession 1,
Municipality of Whitestone (formerly Township of McKenzie), District
of Parry Sound. As previously described in Instrument No. 118037. PIN
52251-0003 (LT). Roll # 49 39 050 001 00800.
Minimum Tender Amount: $6,130.78

You can't get there except by building a road a coupla miles long across crown land.  The unopened road allowance is a straight line which also runs right through some small lakes.  I didn't check the topography, but have fun.   Bring a GPS along with you or you will get lost in the bush.

[speedfreeksteve]

So an unopened road allowance is essentially crown or township land?

Does this mean that someone could essentially break out the chainsaws and cut a path to their land if it's only accessible in this way?

[Woody]

The Tyendinaga lot near roslin has a goat path of a road which ends at lot 13 where it appears that a farmer has gated the allowance and is using lots 13 in cons 9 & 8 as pasture.  At the township office they said that a ROW would be needed to access the property.  I am not sure that they had researched it or assumed it.  The allowance is in need of a new bridge, bring your rubber boots if you go to look.

[jreist]

My topographic map showed 3 to 4 structures out towards the end of the road, was there someone living out there or were these ruins, just want to check my theory that this was once settled.

Jreist

This property is why I started the thread.  I'm not sure if the road allowance is Unopened or Closed.  The road is there,  in need of some TLC and a bridge builder.  I was there yesterday, it appears that the land north of the allowance is being farmed, the allowance ends in a farmers field, I assume the person owns property on both sides of the consession line.  Perhaps it was closed across lots 13?

[Woody]

I didn't see any structures near the lot. There are houses on Tracy before it turns north.