The Planning and Development Act of Ontario mandates that all municipalities shall have an Official Plan.

This document which is usually approved by the local City Council, "is a blueprint of how a municipality wants to guide and direct future land use development."

Consequently The City of Toronto also has an Official Plan.

As with all Official Plans, the plan governing development in the Greater Toronto Area must be in line with the Provincial policy statement for development. 

In its current form, the Official Plan for the GTA is guiding development away from paved over farmland and towards tall buildings. The rational for this is that paving over farmland with low density subdivisions is currently seen a failed idea with far-reaching negative consequences for society. Instead, post-modern urban planning orthodoxy now focusses on high density mixed use neighbourhoods well served by transit.

To support this policy direction, the City of Toronto has been allocated funds that will support the implementation of its Transit City initiative.

Transit City will see the rail transit map of the City of Toronto extensively expanded beyond its current coverage.

These new transit corridors will serve as the breeding grounds for tall buildings featuring mixed use and mixed demographics.

The City of Toronto's Official Plan is administered by the Planning and Growth Management Committee of the City Council.

This Committee works with the City of Toronto Planning Department to adjudicate planning decisions in concert with the Ontario Municipal Board.

The role of the Ontario Municipal Board in local planning decisions is controversial. Some observers allege that developers are able to bypass Council opposition to proposed projects by appealing to the OMB, which has the last say.

Recently, steps have been taken to make changes to the OMB in response to these allegations.