Prince Edward County is moving closer to adopting a new comprehensive zoning by-law, after the by-law was approved by the county’s Planning and Development Committee during Wednesday’s meeting.
The update to the comprehensive zoning by-law was put forward, because an updated zoning law is required within three years of any new official plan.
Changes in the new by-law include an update to general provisions for wineries, which now treats farm and estate wineries the same. Regulations surrounding on-site diversified uses for farms and wineries were also updated in the process, which covers options including cafés, restaurants, event venues, and other uses.
The new by-law also removed detailed provisions regarding wind farms, as they are now subject to provincial regulation, and updated environmental protections by prohibiting development within 30 metres of environment protection zones.
Several changes were also made to improve readability, without changing the zoning rules. Several site-specific exceptions were also removed after they were reviewed and found to be redundant.
Several amendments were proposed to the by-law, including two by councillor Kate MacNaughton. The first amendment called for staff to look into revising the R1 residential zoning regulations, in order to reduce restrictions on multi-unit developments such as duplexes, triplexes and row houses in those areas, and was approved without debate.
“Any barrier that we can remove, would be good,” said Councillor MacNaughton. “Those three are ones that we see in the R1 zone already, and they integrate well, and it’s easy to understand how they would live and breathe and exist in R1 zones, considering they’re there already.”
A second amendment proposed by Councillor MacNaughton was to revise regulations for small-scale wind and solar electricity generation on rural residential land, but that amendment was voted down with minimal debate.
Another amendment was put forward in order to correct some wording in the main motion, which passed without debate.
With the zoning law approved as amended by the committee, the by-law was forwarded on to council for final approval.
