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Mono Council holds public meeting to discuss bylaw amendment

November 5, 2020   ·   0 Comments

By Peter Richardson

Mono Council heard a public meeting last week concerning the municipality’s Accessory Buildings- Proposed Bylaw Amendment.

“Accessory is defined as, when used to describe a use, building or structure means a use or structure that is incidental, subordinate and exclusively devoted to the main use, building or structure located on the same lot therewith.”

Formulated by David Trotman, Mono’s Director of Planning, the amendment restricts the size of accessory buildings according to the lot size they are on, with the largest being 600m2 on lots of 2 hectares or larger. No accessory building may exceed 12 metres in height. Although no objections were received from the County Building Department, a resident expressed opposition to the proposal, through the law firm of Davies Howe, who specialize in land development advocacy. Representing Michael and Lynda Clark, they argued that the building limits should increase as the lot size grew and not be capped at 2 hectares or larger. They argued that the proposed amendments were not required to address numerous stated concerns, ass they were covered under existing laws and the development process. Further they stated that they are not justified on planning grounds, nor do they conform to current Provincial Policy Statement, 2020. As the existing provisions were put in place to reduce the number of minor variance applications, the Clarks feel that the new amendments will have the opposite effect.

Several Councillors spoke to the matter and it was suggested that further study of the three proposed options be entertained, by Coun. Ralph Manktelow. Deputy Mayor John Creelman, who incidentally believes that no accessory structure should exceed the size of the residence on the lot, agreed with Manktelow, as did the rest of Council. The public meeting was they closed and a return to the regular Council meeting ensued.

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