Hastings County has won a battle with the province, renewing the rules regarding how properties may be severed for building units.
Property owners should soon have a change in the way they can build on their properties.
It comes about after the county convinced the provincial government to switch back on a ruling in 2019 that had restricted the rules in connection with those building lots.
Warden Rick Phillips tells Quinte News, “It used to be that if you severed two lots and had them serviced and built on you could then sever two more lots up to four all together.”
Phillips says the county sent Director of Planning and development Justin Harrow to Toronto to discuss this with the provincial officials, convincing them to reverse the ruling. “allowing two for two.”
“And the government changed, you could sever two, build on them then you could only sever one more.That affected how many residents you could have in a municipality.”
At a meeting Wednesday, the County Planning committee decided to reverse a policy that stated an owner could make two severances, and once they were built on, could potentially have a third lot severance.
Director of Planning and Development Justin Harrow tells Quinte News the recommendation to County Council goes back to a former policy.
“So if this Official Plan amendment is approved by County Council next week that policy will be back into place. So effectively we’re creating the potential for another, one more severance from the existing lot of record.”
Warden Phillips says this will make a difference in providing housing throughout the county.
“The government wants more housing yet they were restricting municipalities from being able to do that when they took away that two plus two and wanted to make it a two plus one.”
The issue comes before Hastings County at its meeting next week.
