Re rural housing With the…

Re rural housing

With the current housing shortage we would like to sever a 2 acre piece of our property so our daughter and her family can build but the process has brought to light some issues:

1). Severance limits off 100 acre parcel - Dufferin county permits 3 severances off the original 100 acre parcel (which would allow us to potentially move forward); however, our town is more restrictive with only 2 severances permitted, which means a house build is not possible. Personally I would like to see town and county guidelines the same. Additionally, should the original 100 acre parcel remain the baseline for severing or should each severance application be based on its own merits without referring back to the 100 acre lot?

2). EP-2 rating - I just learned about the EP-2 rating which doesn’t seem to be applied to a property on any scientific basis other than Google Maps showing trees in the area. Our EP-2 rating is due to very old Scott’s pine trees that are dead or dying (they are a somewhat invasive species as well). I fail to see why these trees are considered protected, especially when our arborist told us to “just burn them all and start over because they are such a horribly useless tree”. I would like to see environmental controls placed on property where they actually matter and are applicable - not just based on computer modeling which seems to be sorely missing the mark.

3). Our town has another bylaw in place (in addition to the 2 severance maximum) that states you have to own the property for 5 years before a severance application can be submitted. By-laws such as this (again not consistent with the county) make it more difficult to increase housing supply. If these by-laws are in place to curb land speculation then maybe a family severance exemption could be considered that allows the transfer to family for them to build.

It’s difficult enough to sever land in rural areas given environmental and agriculture rules without complicating it further with bylaws that are more restrictive than the county. While I am a huge proponent of ensuring our agricultural land is preserved so farmers can continue to feed Canadians, where land is not being used to grow food, it would be nice to have the option of allowing someone to build a house given housing shortages (not to mention ongoing employment from the build). I also fully understand a town’s goal to maintain a rural culture, but I believe this can be done in a reasonable manner without striving to make the severing/build process exceptionally difficult or impossible.