Damascus will be growing – but not by much.
Senior planner Mark Van Patter explained that a change in the hamlet is not so much growth, but a correction to errors regarding mapping of the Damascus urban boundary.
He noted that in the early 1990s, Don and Ivadel Giles had made a proposal for the expansion of the hamlet boundaries to allow development. However, when the plan was approved, the provincial mapping of the proposal was in error.
In 1995, West Luther council interpreted the official plan boundary to accommodate the two acres excluded when the maps were redrawn.
However, when Wellington County did its county wide official plan in 1999, a number of the smaller detailed maps, including Damascus were dropped.
As a result, the definition of the urban boundaries of the community were further reduced.
Van Patter said the matter came to light last year when the Giles approached the county about getting severances for that land.
The application struck a roadblock until the matter was resolved. What we are trying to do, Van Patter said, is fix older errors and allow Giles to proceed with what was originally intended.
When asked why not ‘square off’ the southern boundary, Van Patter stated that much of the land each of County Road 16 is classed as core greenland. Much of that land is a stone’s throw from the Damascus reservoir.
