Urban Design Decision-Making: A Study of Ontario Municipal Board Decisions in Toronto.

The paper is a study of a Canadian decision-making model in urban design review process. The study focuses on the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), a provincially-appointed administrative tribunal, which is unarguably a powerful decision-making body with respect to matters of urban planning in the province of Ontario. The design decisions made by the OMB have a significant and lasting impact on the physical fabric and visual make-up of cities in Ontario. This research assesses six Board decisions to explore how design decisions are made, identify factors used to evaluate the design quality of development proposals, and examine whether such a decision-making model has helped enhance the quality of the built environment. The study suggests that the OMB model has both pros and cons but is certainly not fully conducive for reviewing and adjudicating designs. It further suggests that the OMB makes conscious attempts to recognize urban design as an important and integral part of planning and supports less rigid design control measures despite being mainly concerned about the "measurable" impacts of a design on a community. Overall, this adjudicative process attempts to balance private and public interests but while doing so may not have led to the best design solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]