70 HEIGHTS OF BUILDINGS COMMISSION 



ished. A business which, when established, is entirely unobjectionable, may 

 by the growth of population in the vicinity become a source of danger to 

 the health and comfort of those who have come to be occupants of the 

 surrounding territory. If the legislature should then prohibit its further 

 conduct, the proprietor can have no complaint upon the mere fact that he 

 has been carrying on the trade in that locality for a long time. The power to 

 regulate the use of property or the conduct of a business is, of course, not 

 arbitrary. The restriction must bear a reasonable relation to some legiti- 

 mate purpose within the purview of the police power. 



Where a region surrounding a brick yard has become primarily a resi- 

 dential section, and the occupants of neighboring dwellings are seriously 

 discommoded by the operations of the yard, the court held that a pro- 

 hibition of the business in the district is not objectionable, as being an 

 arbitrary invasion of private right, but is a valid exercise of police power 

 to prevent injury to others. 



Where there are reasons justifying the prohibition of a business within 

 an area described in an ordinance adopted by a city, the court states that 

 in determining the validity of the prohibition, it will not consider whether 

 conditions in other parts of the city require a like prohibition, as that pre- 

 sents a legislative question. 



Ontario, Canada 



The councils of cities having a population of not less tnan 100,000 may 

 under section 410 of the Ontario Municipal Act pass by-laws prohibiting, 

 regulating and controlling the location or erection of apartment or tenement 

 houses and of garages to be used for hire within any denned area or on 

 land abutting on defined highways or parts of highways. An apartment or 

 tenement house is a building that provides three or more separate suites or 

 sets of rooms for separate occupation by one or more persons. Toronto has, 

 in accordance with these provisions, restricted the character of the develop- 

 ment of a large portion of its territory. Apartment houses and garages are 

 excluded from most of the residential streets of the city. 



The Municipal Act of Ontario (Sec. 409) empowers the council of every 

 city in the Province to pass by-laws preventing, regulating and controlling 

 the location, erection and use of the following buildings : livery, boarding or 

 sales stables ; stables in which horses are kept for hire or kept for use 

 with vehicles in conveying passengers, or for express purposes; stables for 

 horses for delivery purposes ; laundries, butcher shops, stores, fac- 

 tories, blacksmith shops, forges, dog kennels and hospitals or infirmaries for 

 horses, dogs or other animals. The erection or use of buildings for all or 

 any of these purposes may be prohibited within any defined area or areas 

 or on land abutting on any defined highway or part of a highway. By-laws 

 of this character may not be passed except by a vote of two-thirds of all 

 the members of the council. Such by-laws, moreover, may not apply to a 

 building which was on April 26, 1904, erected or used for any of these 

 purposes so long as it is used as it was used on that date. 



