Who Owns the Boulevard in Front of Your House?

Who owns the boulevard in front of your house? Every so often a homeowner asks me some version of that question. Usually it comes up because a neighbour has paved a bit more driveway, or built a low wall, or run their interlock out toward the road. It looks like it has crept onto land that ought to be theirs.

By Rahul Kumar, HCRA-Licensed Custom Home Builder & Real Estate Broker · Golden Brick Homes · September 2026 · 11-minute read

The answer surprises almost everyone. It also starts further back than people expect.

Who owns the boulevard? Not you

Who owns the boulevard: your property line is nowhere near the curb

The original Crown road allowances surveyed across Ontario were 66 feet wide. That is one chain, or about 20.1 metres. Many concession-line and arterial roads still reflect it.

Streets laid out inside registered plans of subdivision vary, and are often narrower. In Oakville the standard local residential right of way today is 17 metres north of Dundas and 18 metres south of Dundas. Minor collectors run to 20 metres. Arterials reach 26 metres or more.

Whatever the width, the principle holds. The pavement takes up only part of it. The curb, the grass strip, the sidewalk and usually a further band of grass behind it are all still road allowance.

So when someone asks who owns the boulevard, the answer is the municipality. The lawn you mow in front of your sidewalk is, in all likelihood, the Town’s. You maintain it. You may have planted it. Your sprinkler probably waters it. None of that makes it yours.

This single fact explains most boulevard disputes. People argue for years without ever asking who owns the boulevard underneath the argument. Two neighbours argue about land, and neither one owns it.

Does long use change who owns the boulevard?

The Land Titles bar

The obvious follow-up is whether long use changes anything. If a family has treated that strip as their own since 1965, surely something has accrued?

For most land in Ontario, that question runs into adverse possession. It is narrower than people imagine. Ontario is a Land Titles jurisdiction, and section 51 of the Land Titles Act bars anyone from acquiring an interest against a registered owner by length of possession. In practice, the qualifying period generally has to have been completed before the parcel entered Land Titles.

What Kosicki actually decided

The Supreme Court of Canada went over this ground in Kosicki v. Toronto (City), decided on 19 September 2025. In a 5–4 decision the Court allowed the homeowners’ appeal. It declared them owners of a strip of City parkland behind their house. The majority declined to invent a judge-made immunity for municipal parkland. The legislature had already set out which public lands are exempt, and parkland is not among them.

Read the headline and you would think the door has swung open. It has not. That claim succeeded only because the possessory period was complete before the parcel entered Land Titles. Ontario parkland has been in a land titles system since 2001. That system does not permit new adverse possession. Prospectively, the decision opens very little.

Section 16 settles who owns the boulevard

For the boulevard specifically, none of that matters. A much older provision settles it.

Section 16 of the Real Property Limitations Act disapplies the limitation periods for waste or vacant Crown land. It does the same for lands included in any road allowance and any lands laid out as a public highway, where the freehold sits with the Crown or a municipality.

Road allowances are on that list. Parkland is not. If you want a one-line answer to who owns the boulevard, section 16 is where it comes from. That is exactly why Kosicki turned out the way it did, and exactly why the boulevard is different.

So the boulevard is the one category where the answer is clean. Nobody acquires it by long use. Not the neighbour who paved it. Not the family who has mown it since the sixties.

I should say plainly that rights in land are a solicitor’s question, not a builder’s. If you think you have a claim over a real boundary, between two private properties, talk to a real estate lawyer holding your parcel register. What I can tell you is how the municipal side works, because I deal with it on every build.

So what happens when someone paves the boulevard anyway?

The encroachment agreement route

Oakville has a formal process for this. It is worth knowing it exists, because most people assume the only possible outcome is removal.

The Town runs an Encroachment Agreement Permit process under its Use of Municipal Right of Ways Policy. An owner can apply to keep a feature that encroaches on the right of way. Applications go in at least eight weeks before installation.

The Director of Transportation and Engineering, or their designate, may then do one of three things. They may issue the permit. They may refuse it. Or they may refer the matter to Council.

Where a permit is granted, the terms may be formalised in an agreement. That agreement may then be registered on title. Neither step is automatic.

It is not a trivial permit. As of 2026 the Town charges $1,997 per application per location. Agreement preparation adds $782 per location. The Town also expects an Ontario Land Surveyor’s reference plan of the encroachment area, engineering certification, liability insurance naming the Town, and an indemnity.

Driveway aprons and gardens are a different stream

One important caveat. That procedure does not cover two of the most common things people argue about.

Driveway aprons fall under the Town’s Driveway Permit Procedure. Boulevard gardens are governed directly by the Municipal Right of Way By-law.

So the neighbour who paved a wider apron is not in the encroachment agreement stream at all. They are in the driveway stream. A single residential driveway entrance or widening permit runs $391 in 2026, up 57% on the year.

Removal is a separate route

Removal is ordered through Municipal Enforcement. It generally follows work installed without a permit, work that breached its conditions, or a permit that has expired.

Here is the part that matters most, and the part nobody wants to hear. All of it is the Town’s discretion. Who owns the boulevard also decides who rules on it, and that is the Town.

Municipal by-law enforcement in Ontario is a power, not a duty. Councils and staff decide whether and when to act. Municipalities across the GTA tolerate an enormous amount of boulevard encroachment, from parking pads to planters to basketball nets. Enforcing every instance would be impossible.

What a neighbour can do when the Town owns the boulevard

You can report an encroachment to the Town, and you should if it genuinely bothers you. What you generally cannot do is force the Town to act. Two things sit alongside that, and both are worth knowing.

• The Ontario Ombudsman has covered all 444 Ontario municipalities since 1 January 2016, and does take by-law enforcement complaints. The office cannot order a municipality to enforce. It can investigate and recommend.
• A claim against the owner is a separate matter. If the work actually harms your property, that is a private claim in nuisance or trespass against your neighbour. It has nothing to do with compelling the Town. That route is the one most likely to have teeth, and it is a solicitor’s call.

What a new build pins out on the boulevard

The survey reaches past your lot and onto the boulevard

This is where people place their hopes. When someone finally builds, everything will get measured, the truth will emerge, and the Town will act.

Half of that is right, and it is the useful half. A build does put on record who owns the boulevard and what sits on it.

A new home on an infill lot in Oakville needs a Grading and Servicing Plan. An Ontario Land Surveyor must prepare it, or an engineer registered with the PEO. The drawing has to be stamped, signed and dated. It then goes in for a Development Engineering permit alongside the building permit.

Published in August 2023, the Town’s guide for residential infill developments sets out what the plan must show. Its scope is wider than the lot itself:

• Property lines and right of way limits, including road widenings, sight triangles and 0.30 m reserve blocks
• The abutting road with all existing surface features — curbs, pavement edges, shoulders, walkways, utility poles and pedestals, handwells, manholes, transformers, streetlight poles, hydrants, bus shelters, mailboxes and sidewalks
• Existing spot elevations a minimum of 5 metres beyond the property boundaries, along the abutting street, and at no more than 10 m intervals inside the property
• Full details of the proposed vehicular entrance, including elevations at the garage and the property line, driveway slope between 1% and 7%, apron dimensions, and a minimum 1.0 m offset to boulevard furniture

So yes. The municipal frontage is surveyed, drawn to a professional standard, and filed with the Town. If something sits where it shouldn’t, it appears on a public document prepared by someone with a seal. The 2026 site alteration permit for a residential rebuild or addition is $2,200 per lot, including two field inspections.

Documenting who owns the boulevard is not enforcing

What does not follow is that anyone has to act on it. Documenting a condition and enforcing against it are different acts. They are performed by different people. Only the first one is automatic.

When who owns the boulevard becomes your problem

There is one version where this stops being a grievance. It becomes a live issue with a remedy when the encroachment physically interferes with your own driveway entrance or your service connections.

At that point it is not annoying you. It is obstructing your permit. It gets dealt with at the Development Engineering stage because it has to be, and the Town has a direct reason to engage.

Your servicing connections run through that boulevard. A road cut permit for private service lines is $615 in 2026. Anything sitting on top of the route becomes your problem to solve.

Short of that, my honest advice is not to plan around it. Knowing who owns the boulevard tells you the rules, not the outcome. It might be removed. It might just as easily be formalised with an agreement and stay put for another thirty years.

If this is your situation

Four things worth doing, in order

Find out where your property line really is. Not where the fence is. Not where the sidewalk is. Where the registered boundary sits. A survey settles it and nothing else does. Here is what an Ontario Land Surveyor does, and which survey you need.

Establish what was there before. A current survey shows current conditions. For history, look at any earlier survey, the Town’s and Halton Region’s aerial photography, dated street-level imagery, and the building permit record.

Separate the two questions. Private boundary disputes and municipal encroachments are different animals. They have different remedies and different decision-makers. Conflating them is how people spend money in the wrong place.

Talk to a solicitor about the first, and the Town about the second. And if a build is anywhere in your future, the survey you need for the permit is the same survey that answers most of this. It is not an extra cost, only an earlier one.

While you are at it, it is worth knowing what your zoning actually allows inside that line. It is also worth knowing whether anything you are planning would need a minor variance.

Who owns the boulevard: frequently asked questions

Who owns the boulevard in front of your house in Ontario?

The municipality does. That strip is part of the municipal road allowance, along with the curb, the sidewalk and usually a further band of grass behind it. Homeowners commonly mow, water and plant it, but none of that transfers ownership. Your property line typically sits well behind the sidewalk.

How wide is a municipal road allowance in Oakville?

The original Crown road allowances surveyed across Ontario were 66 feet, about 20.1 metres. Many concession-line and arterial roads still reflect that. Streets inside registered plans of subdivision vary. Oakville’s current standard for local residential roads is a 17 metre right of way north of Dundas and 18 metres south of Dundas, rising to 20 metres for minor collectors and 26 metres for arterials.

Can you claim the boulevard by using it for decades?

No. Section 16 of the Real Property Limitations Act disapplies the limitation periods for lands included in a road allowance, and for lands laid out as a public highway, where the freehold is vested in the Crown or a municipality. Road allowances are expressly exempt. No amount of mowing, planting or paving creates a claim.

Does Kosicki v. Toronto change who owns the boulevard?

No. In Kosicki v. Toronto, decided 19 September 2025, the Supreme Court allowed a homeowners’ appeal 5-4 and declined to create a judge-made immunity for municipal parkland. That claim succeeded only because the possessory period was complete before the parcel entered Land Titles. Ontario parkland has been in land titles since 2001, which does not permit new adverse possession. It also does not touch road allowances, which are separately exempt under section 16.

What is an encroachment agreement permit in Oakville?

It is the Town’s process for allowing a feature to remain on the municipal right of way. Applications go in at least eight weeks before installation. The Director of Transportation and Engineering or their designate may issue the permit, refuse it, or refer it to Council. The terms may be formalised in an agreement that may be registered on title. As of 2026 the fee is $1,997 per application per location, plus $782 per location for agreement preparation. An Ontario Land Surveyor’s reference plan, engineering certification, insurance and an indemnity are required.

Can I force the Town to remove my neighbour’s encroachment?

Generally no. Municipal by-law enforcement in Ontario is a discretionary power rather than a duty, so the Town decides whether and when to act. You can report the encroachment. You can also complain to the Ontario Ombudsman, which has covered all Ontario municipalities since 1 January 2016. Separately, if the work actually harms your property, that is a private claim against the owner in nuisance or trespass, which is a question for a solicitor.

Does a new build survey show what sits on the boulevard?

Yes. An Oakville residential infill build requires a Grading and Servicing Plan prepared by an Ontario Land Surveyor or a PEO-registered engineer. It must show right of way limits, the abutting road with all existing surface features, and existing spot elevations a minimum of 5 metres beyond the property boundaries and along the abutting street. Encroachments are therefore documented on a sealed public document. Documenting them does not oblige anyone to act.

Where these figures come from