Greenwich farm market zoning proceeds to public hearing

BY KIRK STARRATT

kstarratt@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

A motion of reconsideration has failed and now the matter of land zoning for farm markets in Greenwich will proceed to a public hearing.

Councillor Chris Parker, who represents Greenwich, moved a motion of reconsideration after Kings County council gave first reading to applying C13 Farm Commercial zoning to farm markets in the community.

Parker based his motion of reconsideration on new information that Elderkin, Hennigar, Stirling and Forsythe - the four farmland owners in the eastern end of Greenwich who applied for a rezoning a couple of years ago - have decided to reactivate their original application because the current C13 proposal doesn’t meet their needs. The four had applied originally to have about 400 acres rezoned to C10 Commercial and R7 Residential and to have the boundary of the hamlet expanded to include their properties to help allow for the provision of municipal sewer and water services.

Parker said his other piece of new information was that council, as of August 2007, recognizes that the land owned by the applicants is already in the hamlet, based on the fact the recreation area rate for properties in the hamlet has been charged to the land of the applicants as well.

Didn’t make it to the floor

However, the motion of reconsideration didn’t make it on the floor for debate at the January council session. It was defeated. The matter will now proceed to a public hearing at the county council chambers Thursday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. Second and final reading of the C13 amendments would be voted on at the February council session.

Parker said following the session that if the county had expanded the hamlet boundary and given commercial and residential zoning to the four applicants, all farm markets inside and outside the current hamlet boundary would be treated the same.

He said the Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) gives clear direction that future development should be directed toward Greenwich to help alleviate pressures in other areas and, through two agricultural reviews, nobody ever suggested changing that.

He said if the public agrees with the C13 proposal, the matter would probably be over. However, if the public feels the same zoning should apply to all farm markets in the community, the county would have to start over with another public process.

“The people I’m talking to say they all should be the same,” he said. “It’s a matter of fairness, equality, and it’s in our MPS.”

If municipal water service ends up being extended all the way through to the border with Wolfville, Parker said it isn’t fair that the farm market operators would have to bear so much cost of the expansion. There was support from other levels of government when the services were made available to other parts of the community.