Guelph-Eramosa council supports a farm dwelling severance on Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) owned lands.
The property at 5524 Watson Road, north of Guelph Lake, contains two houses and agricultural land and is owned by the GRCA.
“They rent out the agricultural lands to be farmed and have been operating out of a couple of the buildings that are located on the farm,” said township planning consultant Rachel Martin at the meeting.
They intend to sever and sell the land with the heritage home and retain the agricultural land.
Councillor Corey Woods said he talked to the GRCA and the hope is that eventually the Rotary forest could expand to those agricultural lands.
“At some point this [house] could be surrounded by the Rotary … forest,” he said.
Martin said the severance is permitted under the Wellington County Official Plan for the lands, which are designated prime agricultural, core greenlands, greenlands and recreational.
“Continued farming operation will not present any negative impacts to the core greenlands or greenlands,” she said.
Martin added the property is zoned agricultural, environmental protection and open space. Residential use is permitted in the agricultural zone; however a minor variance is needed to recognize the deficient lot frontage of 22m when 30m is needed in the bylaw.
She added there is a sidesplit house on the property that will be demolished.
Councillor David Wolk asked about the condition of the house.
“A big chunk of this is agricultural land is rented out,” he said. “Depending on the condition of the house … my question would be in the interest of looking for a decline in taxation, why wouldn’t you just tear down the house and turn the whole thing into agricultural.
“The condition of the house clearly has some bearing on it.”
Mayor Chris White, who is also the vice-chair of the GRCA board of directors, said the conservation authority is getting out of the rental business across 35 different properties.
“They’ve categorized them, one, two, three, four,” he explained. “One would be a house that’s about to fall over, so they’d just take it down and whatever. Number two might be one that’s in rough shape but has a bit of life. Number three might be one they’ve just done something on in the past few years. And number four heritage buildings that they may try to use or have a different park use.”
He explained the GRCA rentals began when the authority expropriated the land to build dams and rental income exceeded the expenses of owning the homes.
“Over the years the houses have aged and costs and stuff have gone up,” he said. “They’ve now reached a point the GRCA is actually going to have to start to pay to run the housing program.”
White said he believes the red brick house is salable.
“I don’t know this house specifically but they’ve categorized them,” he said. “If it was a house that had to come down we wouldn’t be doing this.”
White added, “That money goes into the GRCA, that home is maintained, revenue is left with the township from an MPAC perspective,” White said.
However, he said the severance and sidesplit demolition must happen before the sale can take place.
“It’s a lovely property, protected by the GRCA-owned land around it,” White said. “So they should get a reasonable offer.”
The Wellington County land division committee will make the final decision.
