Guelph-Eramosa has included kennels as a permitted use within agricultural zones in the township’s new draft zoning bylaw.
At a public meeting on July 11, former township planning associate Kelsey Lang presented a revised version of the comprehensive zoning bylaw review, with no objections from the public or council about the addition of kennels as a permitted use.
In the new draft Lang defined a kennel as a place, “where a minimum of three dogs or four cats … are housed, boarded, bred, trained, sold or kept and which is licensed by the township but does not include a veterinary clinic.
“Accessory retail sales and accessory pet grooming are permitted and … it wouldn’t apply to a livestock facility. “
At the first public meeting on May 26 to review the final draft, kennels remained a prohibited use in the entire township in the draft.
Kennels were originally prohibited because years ago they were too close to residential areas and there weren’t a lot of licensing provisions, Mayor Chris White explained.
However, council received backlash from the public and on June 6 council directed staff to include kennels as a permitted use in a new draft.
“I know it seems like we’ve been fighting back and forth here,” councillor Corey Woods said at the June 6 meeting.
“But you know when you consider 34 per cent of households have dogs, three people on this council have dogs, and considering that I don’t know if we could actually legally prohibit kennels due to the OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) and how they do everything, this really does need another look.
“And I would like to see kennels allowed in an agricultural zone provided there’s a number of over-arching provisions.”
On July 11 council heard what those regulations would be.
“A kennel must be located on a farm and be secondary to the agricultural use,” Lang said.
“The kennel must be appropriate for rural servicing and be compatible with agricultural uses. It must comply with all applicable bylaws and regulations such as noise and parking regulations, all structures must be set back 150 metres from all property lines and parking will be provided at a rate of one space per 25 metres squared for floor area.”
Kennels must have at least one employee living on site and all buildings, structures, parking lots and loading areas must not take up more than two per cent of the lot area, up to a maximum of 0.4 hectares (one acre).
Kennels will require a site plan to address fencing, buffering, the layout of the operation and parking spaces, Lang said.
However, regulations such as operating hours will be covered in a licensing bylaw, which Lang said would come forward in the next few months.
White clarified the addition to the bylaw wouldn’t impact veterinary services.
“We aren’t allowing vets to operate within a kennel,” Lang said. “You have to be in a commercial zone to have a veterinary clinic.”
Resident Gordon Carothers asked whether the change in the bylaw was more a book keeping exercise or a result of someone asking to start a kennel in the township.
White said kennels are being discussed because the township is doing a complete review of the entire bylaw. However, he also said the public has indicated that some people would like to see kennels in Guelph-Eramosa.
“If there’s a way to do that without disturbing other folks then we would proceed with it,” White said, citing the possibility the township could be taken to the OMB if the public wasn’t satisfied with prohibiting kennels.
“We want to be proactive and get ahead of the rule setting,” White said. “The whole idea at the end of the day is we will have a nice comprehensive bylaw with rules around (it) that will allow people in the right circumstance to have a kennel, (as long as) it doesn’t disturb the neighbours.”
Other issues addressed in the bylaw review include:
– accessory apartments;
– agricultural zone diversification and rural home industry;
– garden suites;
– shipping containers;
– zone options for increasing conformity to the county’s Official Plan;
– home occupations;
– commercial zones;
– parking regulations;
– prohibited use revision;
– industrial zones; and
– a process to repeal the current zoning bylaw and pass the new zoning bylaw.
