Image: Huron County Courthouse
The County of Huron is getting ready to review its zoning by-laws, and taking time to inform local councils about some changes that have been proposed.
Goderich Council received their update from Senior Planner Victor Kloeze.
“Some of these changes, folks are really excited for, and so we can say ‘OK, we hope to have this in effect in force by the summer’, rather than ‘we hope to have this in effect in force by some point [within] the next 2 to 5 years when we update the zoning by-law’,” said Kloeze at Monday’s council meeting.
So far, the county has held two open houses regarding the Official Plan, as well as a zoning by-law open house.
The county has also received 99 survey responses, as well as public letters, emails, and comment cards, with ideas from residents for changes to be made.
“We’re proposing to allow for more residential units. One of the changes here is looking at how the rules for accessory buildings on residential lots work,” said Kloeze, “And so we would allow for larger accessory buildings, and for those accessory buildings to contain a dwelling unit, which was already in the by-law.”
The county is looking to change from five residential zoning categories (lowest, low, medium-low, medium, and high) back to three: low, medium, and high density.
They’d also be looking at amending zoning for downtown properties that are away from commercial frontages to allow for multi-unit residential buildings.
There are also plans to reduce parking downtown to allow secured bicycle or scooter parking spaces.