Collaborative decision-making and persistent land use conflicts: The Kawartha Highlands case study (Ontario)

Using a case study approach, this thesis explores the relationship between persistent land use conflicts and the efficacy of collaborative decision-making. Interviews with those directly involved in the contentious Kawartha Highlands Local Stakeholders Committee were used to reveal procedural choices that structured and facilitated this planning process, while the broader community's perception of the legitimacy of these choices was assessed through a review of the local media. These results were combined with the existing literature on provincial land use planning and it was found that the intense public debate over this new protected area is an extension of unresolved land use conflicts. While controversy surrounding the Kawartha Highlands Signature Site may have been inevitable, the results have shown that it was prolonged by the failure to appropriately acknowledge the legacy of past land use conflicts through process design.