The Township of North Dundas held a Public Meeting at the Joel Steele Community Centre on February 23 to consider two zoning by-law amendments. The meeting was held in-person, with strict Covid-19 protocols in place. The Planning Act requires that the neighbouring properties within a 120 metre radius be notified of an application for a zoning amendment. The Act also requires that a public meeting be held to allow for discussion.
The first request was to change the zoning from Rural (RU), to Rural-Exception Twenty Seven (RU-27) at 2190 Crowder Road, Mountain. This zoning by-law was amended as requested, and was formally passed at the Special Council Meeting immediately following the public meeting. The property in question is home to Klein Agri Services Ltd., which provides services to local farms, including manure spreading and harvesting. Rural zoning allowed the owners to operate a rural home operation. They requested the zoning change to allow for an agriculture related business with farm machinery storage. The owners can now expand the business on the site, which they could not do with the land zoned as Rural. The new zoning allows for an agricultural related business rather than simply a rural home operation.
The second request was to amend the zoning of a property in Chesterville, from General Commercial, to General Commercial Exception Twelve (CG-X12), to allow for residential space on the ground floor. The building currently has approximately 3,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor, with residential space above. The amendment requested would allow half of the commercial space to become residential. The proposed amendment specifically states that less than 50% of the commercial space would be allocated residential.
The proposed use for the building going forward is that half of the ground floor would be a residential unit, and the other half a laundromat. This would not affect the current residential unit on the second floor. There were no comments received about the proposed amendment prior to the public meeting, and no one spoke out at the meeting. Despite the lack of public feedback, Council deferred the passing of the proposed amendment to allow for discussion with the owner, as some members of council were concerned about the loss of commercial space, and would be more comfortable with a 60/40 split between commercial and residential. Lack of parking for residents was also a concern during the pre-consultation process of this application, as previous requests for zoning amendments on this property to change all of the ground floor to residential, have been denied, in part due to lack of available parking for residents. The owner has made arrangements with the owner of a nearby property to provide parking.
