Concession road

In Upper and Lower Canada, concession roads were laid out by the colonial government through undeveloped Crown land to provide access to rows of newly surveyed lots intended for farming by new settlers.

Title to an unoccupied lot was awarded to an applicant in exchange for raising a house, performing roadwork and land clearance, and monetary payment.

[1] Concession roads and cross-cutting sidelines or sideroads were laid out in an orthogonal (rectangular or square) grid plan, often aligned so that concession roads ran (approximately) parallel to the north shore of Lake Ontario, or to the southern boundary line of a county.

Unlike previous American colonial practice, land in Ontario was surveyed first before being allocated to settlers.

[2] The provision of road allowances was an advance over earlier survey systems which allocated no roadways.

Survey lines referenced back from the Great Lakes ran at different angles, forming triangles and other irregular shapes.

Other plans used during colonial surveying used different layouts and lot sizes of 100, 150, 160, 200 or 320 acres.

In most of Upper Canada this layout of roads preceded urban development, so that most Ontario municipalities now have grid patterns of streets.