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Home My WebLink AboutThe Citizen, 1994-10-12, Page 1Education ■ News Sports______■ Entertainment Brussels PS grads receive annual Menzies award See page 2 90-year-old tries for clandestine crossing of bridge See page 3 Weekend action has Bulls with 2,2 record See page 14 Reviewer enjoys Hay Fever at The Grand See page 23 Blyth amends zoning By Bonnie Gropp Blyth council amended a zoning bylaw at its Oct. 5 meeting, to allow for a greenhouse and market gardening with an accessory resi dence and storage building on Part Lot 42, Conc.l just off County Road 25. At a public meeting with the two applicants, Mike Siertsema and Luke Bowman, and neighbouring landowners, Cindy Fisher of the Huron County Planning and Devel opment Department outlined the amendment and any impact it might have. Ms Fisher said that the property which is presently zoned Future Development was previously desig nated as Agriculture in the village's Secondary Plan. It was changed to Developmental in the five year review of the plan in 1990, which meant that agriculture is permitted, but limited to the use of the land for crop or fruit production. Livestock is prohibited. Agriculture, she said, would be intended as interim use until the lands were needed for urban devel opment. As Future Development only the existing buildings at the time of the comprehensive bylaw fn -July 1991 would be permitted. By changing the designation to Future Develop ment-Special the greenhouse and market gardening operation would be allowed, Ms Fisher said. The rezoning affects the appli cant's entire property of 6.6 acres, which was recently created as a esult of the expansion at the Blyth ’airgrounds. Ms Fisher said that prior to ipproval, the rezoning must be in lonformily with the provisions of levelopmental policies. "There ppears to be conformity with the dan," she said. Ms Fisher noted that her depart- :ient had received two written omments with regards to the czoning. The Huron County icalth Unit had no objection, how- ver Hullett Twp. council xpresscd concern that the rezoning light restrict the owners of adja- cnt farm lands. George Rcinink, whose East Vawanosh chicken farm abuts the pplicant's property, questioned the mpact the rczoning would have on lis operation. He also noted that he lad at one time raised silver fox ind was considering getting back into that. Ms Fisher explained that any abutting farmlands arc currently zoned Restricted Agriculture and any new or expanding livestock operation would require a code of practice calculation to determine the required distance from the pro posal to Blyth's urban limit. "Gen erally speaking any proposal for a new or expanding operation is already restricted by the urban des ignalions in the village," she said. "The subject zone change does not further restrict since it is already in an urban developmental zone v. uh in the corporate limits of the village Continued on page 21 CitizenTheNorthHuron Vol. 10 No.40_____Wednesday, October 12, 1994 600 GST included In the pumpkin patch Maybe Linus should have joined this group of junior and senior kindergarten students from St. Columban as they may have encountered the Great Pumpkin. Many area students have been celebrating the arrival of October and the harvest of fall with tours through the Blythe Brooke Orchard Pumpkin Patch where they are treated to some apples and have the chance to pick their own pumpkin for Hallowe'en. County takes back powers The towns of Exeter and Clinton felt they were being double charged by Huron County for planning ser vices they carried out themselves, now they won't be able to do their own planning. The dispute between the two towns and the county came to a head on Thursday when Huron County council voted to repeal the bylaw which gave the towns their ability to carry out planning func tions such as lot severances and minor variances. Now the towns, barring the county decision being overturned, will be forced to use the county system they felt was overcharging them. The dispute revolves around the user-pay philosophy of planning fees. The county, feeling that such planning functions benefit develop ers rather than ordinary taxpayers, designed a system of application fees that would pick up the over head of the county's planning department. This would be charged to all developers whether they were in one of the municipalities that use the services of the county depart ment, or one of the municipalities that use their own planning consul tants. A compromise that saw part of the fee go to the county and part to the local municipality was turned down by Clinton and Exeter as being too expensive for developers. Why should their developers, they argued, pay more to the county than they would have paid under planning done by municipal con sultants." Meanwhile reeves from the other municipalities fell they shouldn't be stuck with picking up the whole cost of the planning department while the larger towns opted out of the system. Faced with non-payment of plan ning fees from 1993, county coun cil had been set to revoke the delegation of planning functions at its September meeting, but instead a proposal to have the county's lawyer talk to Exeter's lawyer was accepted. The two lawyers exchanged views with Exeter offer ing to pay $50 for all the planning fees in 1993. That seemed to be enough for county officials, but Exeter Reeve Bill Mickle accused the county of short-circuiting nego tiations. "We have not received any response from your lawyer," he told councillors irom the other municipalities. "I find it inconceiv able that this council would step into the centre of this debate." He said it gave the impression that if Continued on page 10 Letter mystifies council By Bonnie Gropp A mysterious legal document complicated a tendering issue at Blyth council Oct. 5 Blyth councillors had just opened tenders for snow hauling in the vil lage when Councillor Mason Bai ley said he had reservations about farming out work that village employees could do. Tenders had also been called for contracting the snowplowing for this winter rather than using the vil lage truck. Clerk Administrator Helen Grubb told Councillor Bailey that the hauling of snow was never done by village employees. Previously, Foreman John Rinn had contracted the service of two local businesses to do the work. This year he felt it would be more fair to tender, she said. Councillor Bailey then made ref erence to a legal document which should be considered before any tender is accepted. Reeve Dave Lee, however, said that he had no knowledge of what Councillor Bailey was referring. "You're one up on me," he said. "I don't know anything about a letter." Ms Grubb said that she had been at meetings all day and had found a legal document on her desk upon her return. However she wanted to know how Councillor Bailey knew about this as it was marked confi dential. He replied that there were many things he knew. He added that he felt no move should be made without the village solicitor's approval. "Why do we need our lawyer's opinion to approve a tender?" Reeve Lee then asked. Councillor Bailey said he felt it very important that council "tread carefully". "I think what Mason is saying is that this should be left until we can see what this document has to say," said Councillor Cobum. "But tendering for snowhauling was not done for purpose of com parison," said Ms Grubb. "It has nothing to do with anyone else except making it fair." Councillor Bailey said he still felt it was important that a few days be taken to look into the situation. "It may not affect us but it might save us some trouble," he said. "What trouble are we in," asked Councillor Shirley Fyfe. "A lawsuit," said Councillor Bai ley. "I am just asking that we wait until you (Reeve Lee) see the letter and until we have full council," he added noting Councillor Steve Sparling's absence. He said that at the previous mon th's meeting Councillor Sparling had done a lot of calculating about the cost of repairing the old snow plow truck or contracting the work. "Steven and I were concerned about the quality of the service. We have no indication that the contract people will plow for three hours just because our guys did. If we're a responsible council we won't make a mistake we are going to pay dear ly for." Councillor Coburn said that while it is always best to own the equipment, it can't be considered if you can't afford it. Councillor Bai- Continued on page 10