Huron Expositor, 2016-10-12, Page 11Fruit orchard on municipal
property, council
discussing whether to
keep or take down
Shaun Gregory
Huron Expositor
A verbal agreement between
the municipality and two Sea -
forth homeowners has both par-
ties misunderstood when it
comes to where a large garden
can be built and what types of
food can grow on this civically
owned property.
Stephen Perin and Richard
Green bought a house that sits on
about a half -acre in the summer of
2014. A mutual arrangement was
reached between the real estate
agent who sold them the premises
and the CAO of Huron East, Brad
Knight that as long as their new
buy was well groomed, there
would be an allowance for a
garden.
Represented by lawyer, Matt
Chapman as a mediator who
spoke for the two at council in the
delegation October 4, they sought
to keep their previous bargain of
using the municipalities property
for a source to produce food. Cur-
rently there is more than a dozen
fruit trees planted and growing at
the location that the Public Works
used as a snow lot a couple years
back.
"They fell in love with the
community and felt that putting
roots here will allow them to bet-
ter pursue their interests and one
of (those) interests are garden-
ing," explained Chapman.
"Based on the representation of
their real estate agent, they were
led to the understanding that
they could exclusively use a siz-
able portion of the property for
their garden?'
"Which would include all man-
ners of fruit and vegetables."
Based on what most people grow
in towns like Seaforth, and then
hearing the expectations of Green
and Perin's concepts, Knight con-
fessed to not knowing the magni-
tude of what the two were
planning.
"My understanding of the garden
is this area would be a 10x10 vege-
table garden, not exclusive use of
the whole property," stated Knight
to council.
With a substantial number of
trees growing on the property, to
protect their investment, Chapman
also requested an installation of
some type of rail fencing to keep
wild life out. An inquiry that Huron
East Mayor Bernie MacLellan said
will set a bad example for other
people down the road.
"It's unfortunate the verbal
agreement wasn't understood
by both parties, but I'm going to
say that I think it's left a bad
taste because things happened
that weren't expected," said
MacLellan. "I'm personally con-
cerned about allowing the use of
municipal property whether it
does or doesn't have structures
on it."
Chapman suggested that they
could put four feet tall chicken wire
that could easily be taken out if
need be.
Seaforth Coun. Bob Fisher
reminded council of the agreement
between Huron East and Seaforth
and District Foodbank.
"We let them use the arena for a
garden," said Fisher citing the
grounds that surround the Seaforth
District and Community Centre.
"I think it's very practiced, we are
not cutting grass or polluting, we
are growing food:'
A topic that came up several
times during the night that came
along with the arrangement of both
parties more than two years' prior
is that the grass must be main-
tained and according to Knight and
the mayor those tasks were not
being met.
"My understanding is the origi-
nal verbal agreement what was
explained when Brad brought
council up to speed. I think we
were under the impression that let-
ting them have a garden that they
were going to maintain the lot, so
our staff didn't have to work there,"
commented MacLellan.
The two gathered with their law-
yer for a brief moment and Chap-
man told council that they are will-
ing to go back to the proposal of
upholding the property. He said
they bought a special lawn mower
to do so.
One of the two that own the
property spoke, "we spent approxi-
mately $1,000 on these fruit trees to
assist in feeding my family, (and)
it's a lot of money"
Council directed Knight to bring
this issue back to the chambers
after he's had a further discussion
with their lawyer, this is where they
will discuss future options, said
Knight.
"It's good that somebody even
asked, we have lots of municipal
property or road allowances and
it's quite common in urban areas,"
Knight said. "You have road allow-
ances or unopened roads, people
either cut the grass or they put a
garden on it."
Wednesday, October 12, 2016 • Huron Expositor 11
Shaun Gregory
Behind the stop sign is where Seaforth residents have planted more than a dozen fruit trees on municipal property.
Huron East allowed a garden to be built, however there are discrepancies to how big and what they can grow.
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NOTICE - FOG TESTING SEWER LINES
Work crews will be in Seaforth in the areas of North Main Street, Welsh
Street and the Briarhill Subdivision on
THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13TH AND 14TH, 2016
A "FOG TEST" survey will assist our inspection crews in locating breaks and defects in our
sewer system. The fog you see coming from the vent stacks on houses or holes in the ground
is NON-TOXIC, NON -STAINING, HAS NO ODOR, WHITE TO GRAY IN COLOUR AND
CREATES NO FIRE HAZARD.
THE FOG SHOULD NOT ENTER YOUR BUILDING UNLESS YOU HAVE DEFECTIVE
PLUMBING OR DRIED UP DRAIN TRAPS.
Notices have been hand delivered
Thank
If you have any questions,
Barry Mills,
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to all affected
you
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w-
properties.
for your cooperation.
please call the office at 519-527-1710.
Tech, Public Works Manager
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