The Citizen, 2015-02-19, Page 13THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2015. PAGE 13.
Council approves specific
provision for CH farm lots
Keeping an eye on things
The Blyth Legion and Legion Ladies Auxiliary hosted its
annual Valentine’s Day bingo night at Memorial Hall last
week, catering to all the folks who were thought winning a
little extra cash around the holiday wasn’t such a bad idea.
One such bingo player was Bush Whittard, who filled his
table with cards in hopes of becoming one of the night’s big
winners. (Vicky Bremner photo)
Huron County Council is
attempting to restore fair treatment
to Central Huron when it comes to
minimum severed farm sizes.
With the five-year review of
Central Huron’s Official Plan up for
review at Huron County Council’s
Feb. 11 committee of the whole
meeting, councillors decided to go
against the Huron County Planning
and Development Department.
Planner Susanna Reid presented
the review, complete with updated
policies and mapping. However, she
was pushing back on one of Central
Huron’s suggestion, asking that the
minimum severed farm size be set at
50 acres, rather than the 40 acres
being requested by Central Huron
Council.
Director of Planning and
Development Scott Tousaw
explained that this provision only
comes into play when someone
owns at least “a farm and a half”
meaning that somewhere along the
line two adjacent lots of 100 acres
and at least 50 acres had been
merged into one lot. Provisions
across the county now allow that a
50-acre parcel can be severed off of
that lot, returning to one 100-acre lot
and one 50-acre lot.
These severances, Tousaw says,
allow younger farmers a chance to
start an agricultural operation on a
smaller lot with reduced costs.
Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn,
however, detailed his municipality’s
unique situation, saying that unlike
most of the county, which was
settled with 100-acre lots (even
including Central Huron’s Hullett
Township), Goderich Township was
settled on 80-acre lots.
To allow Central Huron’s
requested change to the plan, he
said, would simply be allowing the
municipality to permit the same
severance options as elsewhere in
the county, but with the policy
adapted slightly to fit the
municipality’s unique lots.
Ginn said that under the county’s
one-size-fits-all regulations, a
Central Huron farmer would have to
own a two-farm-sized lots of 160
acres in order to sever off a 50-acre
lot.
He told council that his lower-tier
council had “spent a lot of time on
this” and felt that it was important if
they wanted young farmers starting
operations in Central Huron.
He said that while the difference
between a 40-acre lot and a 50-acre
lot might not sound that big to most
councillors, it is to a young person
without a lot of money, especially
with farmland prices of around
$15,000 per acre.
North Huron Reeve Neil Vincent
suggested that the policy could
maybe be worded differently. He
said that rather than mentioning
numbers like 100 acres and 50 acres,
the provision should deal in
percentages, saying that if a farm is
comprised of one-and-a-half of the
municipality’s original lots, it can be
allowed to sever the half lot.
Several councillors agreed, saying
Central Huron shouldn’t be
victimized due to circumstances.
Council approved the five-year
review of the Official Plan without
Reid’s recommendation. Two
clauses, however, one pertaining to
renewable energy and the other to
commercial water taking, were not
included in the approval, as they are
still before the Ontario Municipal
Board (OMB) in what Tousaw called
“a timing issue”.
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