There were no public objections to a Grey County official plan amendment for a proposed residential farm cooperative just outside of Thornbury.
Last week, Grey County held a public meeting about Official Plan Amendment number 25, which would make a technical change to the county’s official plan for a proposed farm cooperative known as Thornbury Acres.
The 61 hectare property in question is located at the corner of Grey County Road 2 and Grey County Road 40 just outside of Thornbury. The property owner has applied to the county for a plan of condominium and to the Town of The Blue Mountains for local official plan and zoning bylaw amendments to create a 37-unit, residential farm cooperative.
Those applications have all been appealed to the Ontario Land Tribunal and are currently before that body for a decision. The 37 units would be serviced by internal private roads, wells and septic systems, the proposal includes open space and recreational components and a portion of the property would be used for agricultural purposes. Currently, the property is mostly covered by forest.
On the property is approximately 9.8 hectares of specialty agricultural land. The county official plan amendment would create an exception on the specialty agricultural land to allow it to be used in concert with the proposed residential farm cooperative.
Scott Taylor, the county’s director of planning, explained that the county received written comments from local agencies and three local residents.
Taylor said concerns raised included:
- The impact on local farms and farmland
- Concerns about the precedent-setting nature of such a proposal
- Concerns that the land has not been farmed in some time
- Concerns about the amount of farmland on the property being insufficient to warrant 37 units of a farm cooperative
David McKay, a planning consultant hired by the property owner, made a presentation and said the proposal would be bringing dormant farmland back to life.
“The eastern portion of the property was agriculturally used - it hasn’t been for a number of decades,” said McKay. “Part of the proposal is to reinvigorate that portion of the land, which is the specialty agricultural and the rural components for agricultural purposes.”
Neighbouring property owner Randy McLeod spoke at the meeting and expressed concerns that there is not enough arable farmland for the property to support a 37-unit farm cooperative.
“I will definitely be impacted by this,” said McLeod.
In response, McKay said the proposal would see 20.7 hectares (just over 51 acres) of land used for agricultural purposes, while another 14.96 hectares would be used for recreation/open space.
No decision about the application was made at the meeting, which was held to gather public input on the proposed amendment. County staff will now prepare a full planning report and analysis that will come to county council in the future in order for a decision to be made on the matter in the future.