KENILWORTH – Wellington North town staff are proposing an array of comprehensive zoning bylaw amendments.
Council held a public meeting about the proposed amendments on July 14, during which no members of the public spoke for or against the changes.
According to a staff report, the amendments are considered housekeeping items and “seek to clarify, improve, correct and refine wording and mapping in the bylaw.”
Proposed updates include general improvements staff say were “identified through day to day application” of the bylaw, as well as change that implement new provincial requirements.
Senior planner Zachary Prince said the proposed updates are largely considered “minor amendments to the zoning bylaw to help clarify or improve interpretation.”
They include revisions to the regulations for home occupations, additional dwelling units, medical clinics, stacked townhouses and garbage storage.
Zoning regulations, permitted uses
Proposed changes to zoning regulations and permitted uses include:
- permitting home occupations within detached accessory structures;
- allowing swimming pools in exterior side yards;
- recognizing underground storage containers;
- adding medical clinic as a permitted use in commercial zones;
- removing parking lots and parking areas as stand-alone permitted uses in certain zones;
- providing different zoning regulations for stacked townhouses compared with street and cluster townhouses; and
- reducing the minimum landscaped area in front yards from 50 per cent to 30% to allow wider driveways on smaller residential lots.
Less landscaping in front yards
The reduction to minimum landscaping in front yards prompted a lengthy discussion from council.
Councillor Penny Renken asked if developers would still be able to come to council to ask for a further reduction from the current minimum of 30 per cent.
Prince said developers and owners can apply for minor variances on any provisions.
“We hear a lot that the landscaped area isn’t large enough for snow storage,” said councillor Sherry Burke. “So I’m not a big fan of reducing it.”
“We are proposing a lot of changes with regards to the additional residential units, so to reduce that landscaped area, I sort of think is ludicrous,” Burke continued.
“I think landscaped area is important for not just the particular unit but for the good of the neighbourhood,” she said.
“I’m not quite happy in having it 30 [per cent] either,” Renken added.
“But I’m wondering if we’re going to go lower, is there any way that you could put a stipulation in that no variances could come in to even ask for it to be lower?”
Chief building official Darren Jones said the provincial planning act regulates how and when variance applications can be made, and it’s up to council to make a decision when they have an application in front of them.
“The township doesn’t have the authority from the province to prohibit people from applying,” he said.
“A lot of developments we’ve seen lately have been pushing back on the six metre frontage set back,” noted Mayor Andy Lennox.
“If we were to have [a] less than six-metre setback on the front yard and then we go to less landscaped area, that makes the snow storage issues much more acute,” he said.
“In some of our newer developments we can clearly see the snow storage this winter became an issue,” Lennox continued.
“I just want to make sure that as much as possible we could keep snow storage in an appropriate location.”
He asked what could be done to ensure that, if the minimum landscaped area is reduced to 30%, there won’t also be reduced front yard set back.
“Is there a way that we could put in a minimum area [for landscaping in front yards]?”
“I think that’s something we could have a look at,” Prince said.
Additional dwelling units
Proposed updates for additional dwelling units are required due to new provincial legislation and amendments to Wellington County’s official plan, according to the staff report.
Updated zoning regulations include the following provisions:
- up to two additional dwelling units permitted per lot (two in main dwelling, or one in main dwelling and one in accessory building);
- a minimum of 1.2 metres must separate main dwelling from detached additional dwelling unit; and
- tandem parking is permitted (such as parking in front of garage).
Parking regulations
Suggested changes also include permitting driveways in exterior side yards, clarifying where parking is permitted for townhouses and apartment buildings, and clarifying and updating tandem parking regulations to allow tandem parking spaces in front of garages for accessory dwelling units.
The proposed changes are intended to keep properties “as tidy as possible [and] keep vehicles from having to park on the street,” Renken noted.
She asked how staff are keeping vehicles from apartment buildings off the street.
Prince clarified that street parking will not be prohibited, and that tandem parking will only apply to residential dwellings such as townhouses, singles and semidetached houses fronting streets, not apartment buildings with parking lots.
Typos, mapping
The proposed changes include general typographical and mapping corrections, such as mapping labels.
Site-specific exemptions are added and holding provisions and former uses removed where applicable to reflect current use of the property more up to date environmental mapping.
Proposed amendments also include consolidating and renumbering sections and removing unnecessary wording.
Definitions
Suggested amendments including adding, revising and updating definitions such as commercial motor vehicle, contractor’s yard, fourplex, motor vehicle, parking lot, transport establishment, townhouses (street, cluster, stacked).
Updated definitions better differentiate between townhouse types and clarify where trucks and tractor trailers can be parked and stored.
The township’s current zoning bylaw was adopted in 2001. Since then, it has undergone five housekeeping amendments (in 2004, 2011, 2014, 2019 and 2022).
Township staff are now working on preparing a final zoning bylaw amendment for council’s consideration.
