Mapleview Markham Mennonite Church looking to rezone

MAPLETON – Council here held a public meeting on Feb. 10 to review a rezoning application from Mapleview Markham Mennonite Church. 

No members of the public spoke for or against the application. 

The rezoning would allow the church to expand its parking lot at 7184 14th Line, about a kilometre north of Alma. 

It is a condition of a lot line adjustment that was provisionally approved in October. 

The lot line adjustment expands the church property by taking land from a neighbouring farm. 

The rezoning would change the land from industrial to agricultural with a site-specific exemption. 

Overall, the property, owned by Elmer Frey, is 1.3 hectares (three acres) in size and currently zoned institutional.  

Township planner Linda Redmond said historically, uses such as a church in this area were zoned industrial, but the municipality prefers to “rezone them to an agricultural zone with a site-specific exemption that outlines what it can be used for” when applications for expansions come before council. 

“Institutional zoning really doesn’t align with the county official plan policies for prime agricultural land,” she said.

Rod Finnie, who represented the property owner during the meeting, said, “I understand why you’d like to have it changed to an agricultural exemption instead of institutional – you might not want a big correctional facility on the property for one reason or another.” 

Rezoning from industrial to agricultural also helps to mitigate potential setback limitations for future expansions of surrounding livestock facilities, Redmond explained, “which is good – we don’t want to create a situation where they can’t expand.” 

The applicants requested that a site-specific exemption be included to permit potentially opening a school on the property. 

Finnie said while a school is “not something that is going to happen over night it is a possibility and we would like to keep it open.” 

“We have no concerns with adding that provision,” Redmond said. “It makes perfect sense to utilize the property for this use.” 

Councillor Amanda Reid asked if the school would need to be within the existing building, or if a new building could be constructed on the property for a school. 

Redmond said “if they want to build another building they could do that now with the zoning they have, so there’s no stipulation it has to be in the same building.”  

A small area at the front of the property is a natural environment zone that is under the authority of the Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA). 

Officials with the GRCA have asked that this zone be expanded to align with their own mapping, which Redmond said is more accurate than the township’s, so “We have no problem with that.”

She said the change makes it “easy and clear for everybody to see where the protected lands are to be on that property and no development should occur in that area.”  

Finnie thanked Mapleton staff for being helpful and cooperative, noting, “We really do appreciate it when people work together – if we all work together we can come up with good answers to the problems we face.”