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!
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