The owners of an old school here are hoping the township will allow them to operate a welding shop out of the building, but council decided after a public meeting on June 12 it wants more information before making a decision.
Deborah and Christopher Keffer have applied for a zone change on part lot 9, Concession 14 in old Maryborough. Its civic address is 7502 County Road 10. It is currently zoned for agriculture and institutional (because of the school).
The Keffers are asking that the zoning be changed to commercial and residential. They want to run a business from the 3.5 acre property that includes fabricating and preparing farm equipment, as well as doing on-farm servicing, and welding and a machine shop. In the future, they hope to build a home on the land.
The planning report to council indicated the welding and machine shop, as well as sales and service of agricultural equipment and custom farming, are already taking place there, and a house, contractor’s yard and dry storage would be new uses if the zoning is approved.
The Keffers acquired the land in 2007 and they need a zoning amendment in order to make their business meet township bylaws.
County planner Linda Redmond, working for Mapleton, said the welding shop “may” adequately fall under the agricultural and commercial category the Keffers are seeking, but she wants more detailed information before she can determine that.
She added that zoning permits a residence as an accessory use and “also provides some flexibility for future agricultures related uses on the site. The policies would support a zone amendment for this use should it be related to agriculture.”
But, Redmond added, she has concerns with the proposed use of the contractor’s yard and dry storage facility because those do not generally conform to the official plan and are not consistent with the provincial policy statement with regard to the definition of secondary uses.
She explained, “The use is not directly related to agriculture nor is it providing a service to the agricultural area and does not need to be located in a prime agricultural area. Businesses of this type may be more appropriately located in rural hamlets [such as]Moorefield and Drayton.”
Redmond said the policy statement stresses agricultural related uses must be “small scale and directly related to the farm operation and are required in close proximity to the farm operation.”
She noted the county official plan permits home businesses provided they do not interfere with or hinder surrounding agricultural uses.
Redmond also noted the “agriculture first” policy in the county official plan states “as a general rule, land use activities that support agriculture will be encouraged and land use activities that do not support agriculture will be discouraged.”
Council completed its public meeting and later decided to defer the application until Redmond has an opportunity to obtain more information on the project.
