Zoned in: The Influence of Land Use Policy on Canadian Craft Breweries

Municipal zoning bylaws have a considerable effect on the micro‐geographies of craft brewing. This paper examines the location of craft breweries across Canada and provides an analysis of how land use policy delineates the spatial location of craft breweries in six Canadian cities. Using the parcel level location of breweries as an entry point, our findings confirm how zoning bylaws have broadened the spatial parameters of brewing operations beyond industrial zones. However, while breweries are permitted/discretionary across a wider range of land uses, there is still a concentration of breweries around downtown, industrial, and special districts. Breweries remain largely prohibited from residential zones, part of a broader process of restricting any form of commercial and/or industrial use in single family zones. Our findings link with existing research on the locational dynamics of breweries. While the spatial parameters for zoning were recently broadened, most municipal standards collapse differences across breweries pertaining to orientation (production/consumption) and/or size of facility/output. Our research shows that, in these six cities, the potential for placemaking now extends beyond post‐industrial sites. We argue that municipalities should implement further regulatory measures to ensure compatibility between uses, by differentiating breweries according to their orientation and scale.