Comment
Worth another look
It didn’t work. The sole purpose of minimum distance separation rules (MDS) was to reduce conflict between agriculture operations and new homes and businesses nearby. It failed entirely. In fact, it made matters worse. MDS has been one of the most reliable irritants in Prince Edward County land use planning. It has destroyed heritage, blocked development prospects, and ruined relationships between neighbours. All for fear of livestock smell.
Century-old barns have been destroyed because of MDS. Farmers have been forced to pull out of the County due to MDS. Homes, partly erected, have been dismantled and moved because of MDS. Perhaps hundreds of other development plans have been shelved or abandoned because a long-disused barn resides within the arbitrary circles imposed by the County’s locally developed MDS rules.
Now the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) is advising the municipality to simplify its MDS rules. It goes further. It questions the value “of employing the use of previous (and not in-effect) versions of the MDS Guidelines and Formulae, as there could be PPS (Provincial Policy Statement) compliance concerns as well as practical concerns.”
In effect, the province is saying that when the County improvised on OMAFRA MDS rules in 2009, it crystallized outdated regulations. MDS rules have changed and been revised over the last decade. But for existing lots of record, that is existing property parcels, the made-inthe- County’s MDS rulebook has not. (To be clear, regarding new lot creation applications, severances and consents for example, the County planning department says it has been using updated MDS rules.)
Most property owners, however, are locked in a moment in time. Year after year these arcane County rules, written exclusively to avoid someone being offended by the smell of manure, wreak devastation upon anyone seeking to build in rural areas—ag or otherwise. (Prior to 2006, the County managed—save for Ameliasburgh—without MDS rules at all.)
Now, the province is urging the County to slow down—to reconsider its MDS rules, among other recommended changes to its draft Official Plan.
Council should heed this advice. The truth is that the Official Plan rewrite has been underway since 2011. This a terribly long time. It is, however, an important document. Perhaps the single most important set of policies any council can enact. Our Official Plan governs how growth takes shape in every aspect of this municipality for at least 20 years, likely longer.
Our new council needs the opportunity to burrow into this draft OP—before it is congealed like the failed MDS rules embedded within it.
Jean and McCrae Danford were emotional as they sat in their car nearby as their massive barn was pulled down in March 2008. It had been erected by a Loyalist soldier in the northwest corner of the County, on land granted to him by the Crown for his service in resistance to the American Revolution.
The Danfords had hoped to create a handful of shoreline lots for their children. But the barn stood in their way. More precisely, MDS rules meant either the barn had to go, or the Danfords would never be permitted to create these lots.
It was a terrible choice. One they never should have been forced to make.
MDS rules blocked a dairy farmer on Massassauga Road from building a new barn. Neighbouring houses were too close. They had been built within the artificial circles created by the County in 2008. He eventually sold and moved his family and business away.
A new home was emerging near Lake on the Mountain. The foundation was poured, the framing was up. Then it was discovered that a few cattle resided nearby. The homeowners were compelled to dismantle their new home and move it a few dozen metres to the left. It is likely taxpayers paid the bill for this blunder.
Remember that the sole purpose of this legal apparatus is to strive to reduce neighbour conflicts related to potential aroma due to livestock. Rules designed to minimize conflict have instead had the opposite effect.
As the province notes, MDS rules have moved on. But perhaps this is as good a time as any to reconsider the entire smelly apparatus.
MDS was always a clumsy and ill-fitting set of regulations— made more so by the County’s unique interpretation. But time has gone by. The cure has proven more poisonous than the ill it was intended to treat. Meanwhile, the province has refined its rules. Yet for most property owners, they are stuck in 2008. Unless council acts, we will all be burdened with it for decades into the future.
Our new council, needs to examine this anew. The province has urged Shire Hall not to rush this through.
Given that previous councils scarcely looked at these documents, it seems good advice.
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