There should be a policy…

There should be a policy mechanism to enable severances to permit new residential lots in rural areas in common sense instances such as where the land has lower agricultural capability, a larger parcel contains a smaller section of land that is separated from the larger parcel by a natural feature which undermines its efficiency to be farmed, or where the creation of a new lot(s) generally represents infill.

A policy environment that is too restrictive results in the inefficient use of land - for example if a parcel of land cannot be farmed but happens to be painted by a broad brush policy designation as "Agricultural" (which inevitably happens in assigning land use designations in predominantly rural townships), then the land does nothing and its utility is sterilized simply because the broad brush policy designation which inaccurately labels it.

Related to the above, consideration should be given to amending MDS requirements, particularly requirements to have neighbouring farmers 'sign off' - this is a non-objective requirement.

Planning policy should enable the sensible use of all land, not as a means to sterilize land simply because it is mis-categorized by a high level and sometimes inaccurate 'land use designation' that is assigned in an official plan.