Farm market operator concerned by council's actions on Greenwich issue

BY KIRK STARRATT

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

A Greenwich farm market operator says Kings County has a Municipal Planning Strategy (MPS) and Land Use Bylaw (LUB) for a reason; to guide the decision-making process of committee members and councillors.

However, when it comes to planning matters in Greenwich, he said it seems the rulebook has been thrown out the window.

Doug Hennigar, along with the Forsythes, Elderkins and Stirlings, applied originally to have the Greenwich hamlet boundary extended to include their properties and have their land rezoned C10 commercial and R7 residential from Agricultural over three years ago. Hennigar said, for him, it all stems from an incident about seven years ago when he tried to rent his cookhouse to a fellow in Wolfville.

Hennigar said on his sign they had “merged” and quickly got a call from the county telling him he couldn’t rent out the building because it’s in the agricultural zone.

Further down the road, he tried to have the building enlarged, but couldn’t get a permit for the small expansion. Once again, it was because of the agricultural zoning.

However, he points out he’s taxed commercially and people think he is zoned commercially.



Can of worms

Hennigar said water safety regulations tightened considerably following the tainted water scandal in Walkerton, Ontario in 2000. People from Wolfville used to come get well water from Hennigar because there was no chlorine and people thought they were lucky to be drinking good well water. However, now, in the eyes of the regulatory world, this has reversed and it’s a liability for the public to consume well water. This necessitated a municipal water supply for his farm market operation.

Under some duress, Hennigar said they approached the county about the problem, but opened a can of worms because sewer and water services aren’t supposed to extend through the agricultural zone.

He said his property is within the Wolfville well field protection zone and this means more responsibility and due diligence on their part, another good reason to approach the county and ask for sewer and water service. He said there was no request for housing at all.

He said municipal sewer and water service extensions would cost the landowners in question about $75,000 each even though others in the community hooked into the same services for about $7,500. Even if services were extended, he said he might not be able to afford to hook in. He just bought out his brother and is in no position to spend that kind of money at this time.

In reading the MPS, Hennigar said the application put forth by the farmland owners was something the county had been expecting at some point in time. He said the document was established in 1979 and there was a lot of public meetings and input.

People were told the eastern end of the community would some day be in the hamlet. It’s stipulated that Greenwich would be a future growth area because of the presence of municipal services and this would help alleviate development pressures in other areas of the county. A later ruling by the provincial Utilities and Review Board reinforced this position.

“It made sense at the time and everyone in the community at that time knew something would happen,” Hennigar said. “The agricultural community was very much aware of what would happen to the small amount of agricultural land in Greenwich.”

Hennigar said they can’t develop their businesses any further in the agricultural zone and they need more planning tools in their toolbox because there’s sophisticated competition out there.



Issue took on a life of its own

When the county decided to hire a consultant to study planning matters in Greenwich instead of dealing with the application of the four landowners, Hennigar said the issue took on a life of its own and did more to divide the community than anything else.

“It never should have been allowed to come to this,” he said. “The cluster housing issue (as recommended by the consultant) polarized the community terribly and polarized council as well. It left some pretty big scars here.”

He said there have been changes on council since the matter began and pretty much wholesale change on the planning advisory committee. Council and committee members have only the MPS and LUB to guide decision-making and new members should be educated in these documents when they come on.

“To me, I can’t understand why councillors don’t see it that way,” he said. “We’re within our rights to go in and ask for changes that were expected and documented. Three years later, we’re back to where we started from.”

He said the county’s proposed C13 zoning for farm markets in Greenwich would legitimize what they’re already doing, but provide no opportunity for future growth. He said there are five farm markets in the community with three different varieties of zoning. However, people seem scared of the list of potential uses for C10.

“We’re supporting a level playing field for all farm markets with the same zoning so the rules are the same for all.”

He said his hope is to continue to grow agriculturally, but opponents are asking why they need a residential component to their zoning.

“The other guys are selling building lots on the other end,” he said. “I’m not suggesting that’s why we’d want it, to do the same. I call it good futuristic planning.”

The stance of the Federation of Agriculture is that if society wants to protect farmland, society should pay and all three levels of government should be part of that solution. Hennigar said perhaps Greenwich would be a good location to demonstrate an off-the-grid community. If made a green zone, some of the rural integrity would be maintained.

“I’d urge the public to e-mail council and tell them it’s time to level the playing field and make all of Greenwich the same,” he said.