Councillors here want a more liberal approach to lot creation to address the increasingly urban nature of the township.
The issue arose May 2 as a result of a request from Wellington County, which is looking for comment on its official plan update and considering changes to the secondary agricultural lot creation policies.
In April, the county planning committee received a report on those policies, which noted most of the rural part of Wellington is designated as for prime agricultural use.
However, there are lands designated as secondary uses in Puslinch, Erin and Minto. Currently, lot creation for residential uses is limited by several factors.
One is the requirement that only one new lot can be created from an original lot that existed in April 1999. Once that lot is created from an original parcel [as of 1999], a second residential lot cannot be created.
“During pre-consultation discussions with the previous Puslinch council, the question was raised if the date should be reset in order to increase the potential for new lots. That question has also been raised by landowners in Puslinch.
Staff identified the following options for consideration:
– keeping the existing policy;
– change the policy to be based on the date of March 1, 2005 – at which point the Greenbelt Plan and Erin’s official plan were in effect;
– change the policy to reflect the date of the provincial approval of the county’s five year review amendment [likely in 2013].
Councillors noted that in the latter two options, staff anticipated a short term increase in lot creation. And, given the potential impact, the county planning department felt Puslinch, Erin and Minto should be consulted.
Mayor Dennis Lever said there was considerable discussion about that at the Wellington County planning committee. One of the issues from that discussion was that the committee wants feedback from the local municipalities.
Lever noted the planning committee had been approached by the previous Puslinch council.
Councillor Susan Fielding recalled then-mayor Brad Whitcombe acted as liaison.
Fielding said councillors were in the midst of doing an inventory of what was available in Puslinch, “and were concerned about future development and the future sustainability of the township.”
There is not an infinite amount of property that will be available, she said.
Fielding suggested the council of that day believed the policies were too restrictive.
“This is one of the things we wanted to be looked at in the five year plan. Its up to council what we would like to recommend.”
Councillor Wayne Stokley said a number of residents had approached him with the idea of resetting the date under which new lots could be severed. A number of properties cannot be severed now because of that date.
“Currently we have 136 properties which could be developed. I’ve never had someone come to me and say they want the property to stay the same. It is always that they would like to develop what properties they have.”
He added, “We are moving from more of an agricultural township to a residential one, where people are coming into the area. The number of farmers has actually decreased over the years.”
Stokley said it is a trend that should be addressed, with the option of being able to sever more parcels of land.
Councillor Ken Roth agreed. “Because of our proximity to major centres, we’re going to continue to grow at a faster rate.”
Councillor Jerry Schmidt agreed with the thrust of the conversation in that the push in Puslinch is to become more residential than agricultural.
“It is important that we have a more liberalized severance arrangement,” he said.
Fielding believed it would be prudent to move ahead to keep development charges and the tax base replenished. “Also, there is a lot of secondary agriculture land.”
She said provincially “It seems very iffy with the equine industry. We have a lot of equine people in Puslinch and I think sadly to remain viable, their hands are going to be pushed. They are going to have to have severances to keep their farms going.”
She said it does not look good for the equine industry.
Fielding said most of the farms sold over the past five years have been horse farms.
“There’s a lot of reason why we should go with a more liberal policy,” she concluded.
Lever said, “I agree with virtually everything which has been said here,” and added Puslinch is much more a urban than rural municipality.
He stressed the policy changes were for secondary agricultural properties and are not really cutting into prime farmland. “In the end, it will be market forces as to whether these properties are sold or not.” But, he added, he would like to the opportunity to sever off lots again, if there haven’t been any since 1999.
He said any severances would still need to meet the other requirements as set out in the county’s land severance policies.
