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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2008-08-21, Page 20Morris-Turnberry councillorsagreed to waive the fee for a minorvariance for an Amberley Roadproperty at their Aug. 12 meeting because they felt the property had been improperly zoned in the first place. Homeowner Sharen Zinn told council she didn’t even know the property on which her house stands had been zoned highway commercial when she applied for a building permit to add a sunroom. “I don’t understand how a residence that was there for 100 years was zoned highway commercial,” she told council. “I was shocked.” Because of the zoning, Zinn couldn’t add to the house unless there was a minor variance allowed to the current zoning, or the zoning on the property was changed. Either requires a fee to the municipality and the Huron County planning department. Nancy Michie, administrator clerk-treasurer said she had been looking into the problem, along with chief building official Steve Fortier and Sandra Weber from the planning department and they had discovered several homes in the same area are designated highway commercial. With the municipality revising its official plan and zoning bylaw this is an issue that could be corrected, she said. In the meantime, she suggested,council could issue the minorvariance to let construction proceedand recommended waiving themunicipal portion of the fee becausethere may have been a mistake inzoning the property. Council agreed to the variance but Zinn will still need the county’s approval and to ask for waiving of the county fee before she can proceed. Meanwhile council agreed to two severance applications. The most difficult was that of Ken and Karen Warwick of Moncrieff Road who wish to retain their house and seven acres and sell the rest of the farm to a neighbour. Weber told council that the county generally recommends only enough property be included with the house to allow a clean severance, in this case about three acres. The county could not support an additional four acres being taken out of farm production, she said. But Warwick explained that the extra land is sand and gravel and when he rented the land previously, the renter refused to pay anything for that land because it was so worthless. Likewise the purchaser did not want the land now and wouldn’t pay for it, he said. It would be a narrow strip of land that would be hard to work, he said. Currently he was using the land as pasture. Jim Nelemans, deputy-mayor agreed with Warwick, saying the land might become an eyesore if noone was working it. He suggested toWeber that there had been an attemptin the past to square off a severanceso it would go to the property line asWarwick wished. Councillor Edna McLellan also agreed, arguing if the land went to the adjoining farm but wasn’t cropped and yet the Warwicks couldn’t use it because it wasn’t theirs anymore, it could be a mess. Councillors agreed they had no objections to the severance Warwick wished to make. Councillors also approved the application of Steve and Heather Michie on Morris Road to sever 1.5 acres and their residence from the adjoining farm which will become the joint property of Lloyd and Nancy Michie and Steven and Heather Michie. (Nancy Michie left the meeting for this portion of the discussion.) Also appearing before council were Bert and Harry Sjaarda regarding their intention to sever 12 acres of property from a farm at the south edge of Wingham which they understood was zoned highway commercial but after advertising it for sale, they found there was a holding designation on the property. At the May 20 meeting of council, Weber and planning director Scot Tousaw had proposed to council to go ahead with designating the Sjaarda property highway commercial, with a prohibition ofthe land being developed for a foodstore but open for other highwaycommercial uses.But at a special meeting July 24,councillors approved a bylaw torepeal its May 20 motion which would have allowed the county to take that action. Council also approved hiring GSP Group Inc. to review its highway commercial policies. Kelly explained to the Sjaardas that council did not agree with the county planning department and has hired its own planner and lawyer to look into the possibility of the Sjaarda and neighbouring highway commercial properties not being restricted from use. “We have to convince the county planners what we want,” she said. Harry Sjaarda expressed frustration with the delay. He said someone wanted to purchase the farm from him and would like to have the deal closed by the end of the year. Councillors said they hoped the matter would be resolved by then. Meanwhile council passed a bylaw to remove a holding zone designation from a property in Lower Town Wingham. Weber said she hadn’t been able to find anything in the file to explain why the holding designation had been issued in the first place. The zoning had prevented the owner from replacing a deck on the house. PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2008.Planning issues on Morris-Turnberry agenda You go! The Seaforth Pre-Mite tries to leg it out before Londesborough’s second basemen makes the grab. The two teams played Saturday in Londesborough, with Seaforth taking this game and the championship. (Vicky Bremner photo) 125.9 Still think you save money shopping out of town? Enter to win today! 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