Duane Hicks
In accordance with new provincial regulations, the Town of Fort Frances is updating its official plan and zoning bylaw, and expects to have revised versions of both ready for provincial approval by late fall or early winter.
“Our official plan and zoning bylaw were approved in 1998,” municipal planner Faye Flatt noted last week. “[But] there have been changes in the legislation recently so that now it is appropriate for us to revisit those documents and update the official plan and zoning bylaw to incorporate those changes, as well as the provincial policy statements.
“So there’s a few issues that we need to incorporate into our new document.
“We have hired a consultant from St. Catharines, and have gone through that process, and we are forming a steering committee of whoever’s interested,” Flatt added. “I have seven people now, which is a pretty good number.
“What they will do is assist the consultant in developing policies that will guide where we have certain types of development.”
Flatt said the “well-rounded group” so far includes members of the town planning committee, citizens, a councillor, and representatives from the BIA, Chamber of Commerce, and Northwestern Health Unit.
In simplest terms, the official plan is a policy document which sets out the long-term goals and development objectives for the town while the zoning bylaw is the enforcement tool.
Flatt noted the steering committee is going to focus initially on the policies in the official plan, and then on the zoning bylaw later on in the process.
Referring to the latter, she said: “What we’ll do, in that regard, is over the years there’s been a number of minor variances that have been granted. I’ll use width of driveways as an example.
“Where our current zoning bylaw permits a maximum of nine metres for a driveway, in the commercial areas and industrial park, nine metres just isn’t big enough for the big trucks,” she noted. “So people have been coming forward and getting minor variances to allow wider driveways than they’re normally allowed.
“We’ll be tracking those and keeping a running list of issues that have come back a number of times,” Flatt continued. “If we see a trend happening, like that, we’ll probably include a width of driveway maximum for residential and then another one for the commercial so that we avoid all these minor variances for the same issue.
“That’s kind of the underlying theory behind it.”
The steering committee’s first meeting was today (May 6). It will meet once a month, and make periodic reports to town council.
Anyone interested in joining the committee can call Flatt at 264-5323 ext. 275.
Later this summer, there will be public meetings regarding the updated official plan and zoning bylaw.
Flatt said if someone has a valid proposal they would like considered as to how they would like their property rezoned, they should step forward.
For example, the highway commercial zone west of Wal-Mart does not allow retail sales, but in March the town amended its zoning bylaw to allow Northern Frenchy’s to operate there.
“If somebody has a proposal or is thinking, ‘I would like to have a store out there,’ I would encourage them to come and talk to the consultant during one of the open houses,” Flatt remarked. “And if their proposal has merit and good land use planning, we would look at those.
“And again if we see trend happening, we would probably be able to accommodate that.
“We don’t want to encourage people to come forward with, ‘I want to rezone my property so I can build closer to the lot line.’ That’s not what we’re looking for,” she stressed.
Flatt said the updated official plan and zoning bylaw should be ready for submission to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing by the fall.
