Council has agreed to a zoning amendment to allow the continued operation of an existing welding and machine shop on a 3.5-acre property on Wellington Road 10.
“The purpose of the amendment is to rezone the subject lands to allow a welding and machine shop including sales and service of agricultural equipment,” states a section of a bylaw passed at the Aug. 26 council meeting.
“The applicants currently operate this business from this location and have applied for this amendment in order to bring the use into compliance with the zoning bylaw.”
The application also includes a request to allow the processing of organic feed and construct a dwelling in the future. The property is currently designated prime agricultural in the Official Plan and zoned agricultural.
“Staff have no concerns with the rezoning application,” stated Wellington County senior planner Linda Redmond in a report to council. She also noted the proposed rezoning conforms to the Official Plan and is in keeping with applicable provincial policies. “The uses are directly related to agriculture and are providing a service to the agricultural area.”
Christopher Keffer of Harriston applied for the rezoning of the property which is owned by Deborah Keffer, also of Harriston.
Redmond explained in her report that the application was originally before Mapleton council in June of 2012.
“At that time, the application was initiated as a result of a bylaw enforcement infraction. The owners were operating a welding shop out of the former school building without the appropriate approvals.”
During the review of the zoning amendment application the owner included additional uses intended for operation on the site in the future, including a contractor’s yard and dry storage facility.
“At that time staff were of the opinion that the welding use could adequately fall under the agricultural commercial zone criteria,” stated Redmond. “However the proposed contractor’s yard and dry storage facility were not considered to meet the criteria for an agricultural-related use and would have required an Official Plan amendment in addition to a zone amendment. Staff were not supportive of these uses within the agricultural area as the uses were considered industrial, would not conform to the PPS and OP and would be more appropriately located within an established urban area.”
The bylaw, which rezones the land from agricultural to Agricultural commercial was approved by council.
