SOME THOUGHTS REGARDING THE…

SOME THOUGHTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED PROVINCIAL PLANNING STATEMENT
ERO 019-8462

• Thank you for withdrawing the proposal to allow 3 severances from each parcel of farmland which would also have allowed for residential units on each. This would have severely damaged agriculture in this Province.
• Thank you for only allowing one surplus dwelling severance per farm consolidation.
• It is understood that there can be three residential units on a lot as of right. If a Farmer buys a farm and uses the Surplus Dwelling Provision would the one lot severance include all three residential units, as one would hope, or just one? If it only includes one dwelling would the two remaining residential units then have to be moved or demolished since the remaining lands have to be rezoned to prevent the presence of dwellings? Perhaps this could be clarified.
• Local Municipalities rarely apply MDS where proposed dwellings are involved usually using the Minor Variance Process to circumvent MDS calculations and reduce them to whatever works to allow the dwelling to be built. Is the new PPS intended to prevent this?
• All classes of farmland should receive equal and improved protection. All are important in their own way.
• Farmland should not be sacrificed for large scale energy storage or production systems. Did we learn nothing from the Green Energy Act?
• Green Energy works best for small scale individual systems.
• Residential growth must be directed to serviced urban areas. The future is intensification and taller buildings.
• Lot creation and development in rural areas must be discouraged. Taxpayers do not want to foot the bill for extending water and sewer systems when private systems inevitably fail.
• Urban boundaries should be fixed and not easily expanded. Sprawl is the problem not the solution.
• Watershed Planning is extremely difficult when more than one Municipality is involved and when Municipalities have to deal with more than one Watershed.