‘Grey area’ lands could help meet housing targets

Luke Edwards

Grant Haven Media

Large estate properties in rural Norfolk may no longer serve a purpose, and could be better utilized with an additional home or two, a county councillor believes.

With Norfolk looking for ways to meet housing targets, Linda Vandendriessche suggested at the April 28 meeting that there may be an alternative that could ease the pressure on developing in urban settlement areas without affecting the prime farmland. Vandendriessche described some “grey area” lands that aren’t urban, but won’t ever be used for agriculture either.

“We have properties out there that are, in my mind and logically, not farming. It is a section of land or whatever that has not been farmed, maybe it’s trees, but there’s no agricultural activity on them,” she said.

“And there’s room for housing that could occur on that.”

Acting Director of Planning and Realty Services Alisha Cull said the County is still working through a Land Evaluation and Area Review (LEAR) study, which is examining agricultural land in Norfolk.

“The draft did state that Norfolk County is primarily Class 1, 2 and 3 soil, which makes it a prime agricultural area,” she said, adding there are places in Ontario where there are mixed rural lands. However, those tend to be in Northern Ontario where there’s less agricultural opportunity.

And even if there are small pockets in Norfolk’s rural lands that aren’t conducive to farming, Cull said Queen’s Park has said it doesn’t want to introduce conflicting uses into the area.

“So even if an acre can’t be farmed, introducing that house has impacts in terms of minimum distance separation, a new conflicting use, people complaining about farming,” she said.

Coun. Michael Columbus said the issue has been brought up to provincial counterparts before, recalling a discussion he and Mayor Amy Martin had with Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Trevor Jones at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference. However, the discussion seemed to go nowhere, and they’ve yet to receive a response.

Nevertheless, councillors supported directing staff to bring back a report on the issue.

In addition to helping meet housing goals, Vandendriessche said opening up severance and development opportunities for targeted rural areas could help generate more tax revenue and breathe some life into rural institutions to help sustain churches and schools in the country.