Photo by B. Shakyaver
Despite reccomendations from the county planner, County Council approved the severance of a farm parcel at their meeting on Wednesday (June 12) in direct conflict with their own policy.
The lot in Howick would host a multigenerational family, who have owned the farm for well over a century.
Currently, provincial and county policy indicates that additional homes in agricultural areas are supposed to be clustered, discouraging severance in the future – as was explicitly stated by Director of Planning, Sandra Weber.
There are several reasons that planning policy doesn’t allow the severance of agricultural land, beyond directing development within the county to designated settlement areas.
The planners report specifically warned of the importance of maintaining that policy across the board, and indicated that creating an additional residence on the same parcel as the existing one would be more in line with the provincial and county policies.
The argument made by the applicant posited that the lot was naturally divided by geographic features – and several council members were inclined to agree, including Reeve of Howick Doug Harding, who argued that the lot didn’t create minimum distance separation challenges, and that none of the neighbours had any problem with the creation of additional lots.
Weber said that although the geography of the lot, and the community support did create a lot of reasonable arguments for the severance of the lot, the impact of deviating from the policy could have lasting implications.
Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn said that he unfortunately had learned this lesson the hard way in the past.
Mayor of Goderich Trevor Bazinet was insistent that if council denied the application, it could send the message that they were pushing young, working people out of the county.
Concerns noted in approving the application included setting an expectation that severances of this nature would be approved by council, which Mayor of South Huron George Finch was extremely apprehensive about.
The applicant stepped forward to speak about the issue, indicating that as a young person living in Huron County and working in a neighbouring community, she wanted to stay rooted in the area where she grew up, and intended to stay.
Discussion about the severance went on for nearly an hour, before in an extremely close recorded vote, the severance was approved – in direct conflict with the county and province’s own policy.
Written by: B. Shakyaver