Desperately Seeking Severances

There are differences in focus and circumstances between all townships, including those in Frontenac and Lennox and Addington Counties.

Council’s have to defer to planning consultants for much of the detail about the wording of the plans, because the consultants are well versed in the restrictions stemming from County OPs (Official Plans) and the overriding Provincial Planning Statement.

But one item has surfaced, as every township we cover at the Frontenac News has looked at updating their Official Plans, over the past couple of years. That item is severances.

In every case, members of council have talked about how limits to the number of severances that any one rural property, no matter the size of the property, can create, is a hindrance to new home construction.

At a time when the Province of Ontario has created Acts such as the “More Homes Faster Act” and others, these councillors wonder why there is a continued roadblock to developing the one to ten hectare lots on existing rural roads, for single family dwellings and secondary dwellings in some cases, to be constructed.

This kind of construction has been the backbone of all development in Frontenac County and rural Lennox and Addington for decades, and the demand is still there.

But, following provincial directives when the first Official Plans were being developed for our local townships in the early ‘aughts’, a limit of two, or at the most three new severances for each existing rural lot of record was brought in. The start date was generally the date of the adoption of those first plans.

Every time Official Plans have been updated, attempts have been made to either increase the number of lots that can be created from a single lot, or to have the clock restart. But when councillors bring this up, they face resistance.

Depending on the planner, the response is either, “that will not fly with the province” or “we can try but I don’t think it will be approved”. The councillors are not being unreasonable. They are not talking about small, urban lots. The requirement remains that each new lot has significant road frontage on an existing road, that the lots are a minimum of 1 hectare in size, with a potable water supply and ample space for a traditional septic field.

But the Province has a different idea about development. They want to focus development in “settlement areas” with municipal servicing (water and sewer) and they want to protect the rural character outside of towns, and they want to protect farmland.

The frustration for Frontenac and Lennox and Addington politicians, is that aside from Sydenham and a small area around it, there are no settlement areas in the region with municipal servicing. The many hamlets that do exist are too small to be candidates for new municipal water systems to be viable, and are therefore not good candidates for new development because the land is stressed from too many wells and septic systems, located right next to each other.

Rural development is a better option for the environment and our municipalities have developed the expertise and regulatory environment to very safely support much more of the 1 to 5 hectare properties that people want to come out here from urban and suburban Ontario, and build a house on. Places where they can start a hobby farm or a home-based business, where they can walk in the woods, harvest some wood from a managed forest, build a dirt bike track or ride a mountain bike, and bring their energy, and their money, to our local communities.

The frustration felt by local councillors like Ron Sleeth in South Frontenac a couple of years ago, Dan Meeks in Central Frontenac this year, and the entire Addington Highlands Council last week, is the same. All they want is for the continuation of the pattern of development that has worked in their municipalities for the past 50 years, as farming has become less viable, railroads are gone, and their communities have been striving to be more than simply seasonable playgrounds for Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto residents who can afford a summer cottage, in addition to their city home.

The options provided by the Province for rural development are for lots to be created through either a plan of subdivision or land use condominium process. While a limited number of these have been created over the years and some are still in various stages of a long, arduous process, they are an option for professional developers. The vast majority of would-be new homeowners, do not have ten years, and a million dollars to spend, nor are they looking to create 10 or 20 lots. They are looking to create one or two.

Joe Gallivan, the Director of Planning and Economic Development at Frontenac County, recognised about 15 years ago that Frontenac County townships were facing a barrier to a brighter future because of the catch-22 situation the province has placed them in.

He has been working on a solution for over ten years to the problem of development in our un-serviced “settlement areas”, private or municipally created small “communally serviced” housing or commercial developments.

The result of his efforts and those of other county staff members and politicians, is the “Frontenac Municipal Services Corporation” (FMSC), which is poised to support some medium and larger developments in the future. This can happen once a slow-to-change provincial hierarchy learns how to facilitate, instead of slowing down the kinds of projects “Frontenac Municipal Services” was created to make possible and affordable, to build and operate.

While the FMSC solution is a good one, it would only be complemented by a more reasonable provincial stance on severances of large rural lots. There are many ways for the Province of Ontario to protect farming, and the natural environment, while allowing rural properties to be used for housing. As far as agriculture is concerned, there would be more food production, not less, if more severances were allowed because of the number of small scale farms that would spring up in a region where, for the most part the 100 - 200 acre farm is a thing of the past.

If you listen to the planners, going from a limit of two severances plus a retained lot, to 3 severances plus a retained lot, is the best anyone will ever get to in rural Ontario. The planners aren’t making this up.

The Province of Ontario is the only body that can change this, and from all appearances, they never will.