Unnatural

Agriculture students from the Loire Valley in France learning about winegrowing and producing in the County. From left to right are Kemp Stewart of Hillier Creek Estates Winery with Ingrid Balluais, Louise Galivel and Charley Gohier all second-year students at Ecole Superieure d’Agriculture in Angers, France.

Council blocks winery’s plan to expand commercial operations

Is winegrowing real farming? Are vineyard and winery operators farmers at all? According to former Hillier councillor Peggy Burris, they aren’t. Furthermore, the commercial expansion of wineries and vineyards in Prince Edward County threatens the viability of real family farms like hers.

Burris has been locked in a bitter feud with her neighbour Kemp Stewart for many years, in fact, since he began to develop his vineyard and winery, Hillier Creek Estates, next door to her farm. She nearly succeeded in preventing the opening of the winery in 2010. She argued, then, that visitors to the winery might complain about the smell of her farm. Since then no one has complained, but that hasn’t lessened her agitation.

The winery is seeking to alter its zoning to enable it to host weddings and special events in the reconstructed barn in which the winery is located. The application was before a planning committee of council last, Burris, other neighbours and the local federation of agriculture urged council to turn down the rezoning.

“How long before natural farming is impacted by HCE?” challenged Burris the meeting.

Her complaint found several sympathetic ears around the council table. Some first-term councillors believe more communication and dialogue might solve the long-simmering dispute between Stewart and Burris.

Other councillors barely masked their distaste for the growing winemaking sector in the County.

“It is time that we protect the traditional cultural value of property in PrinceEdwardCounty,” said Sophiasburgh councillor Terry Shortt, drawing a distinction between what he perceives to be traditional farming and winegrowing. Shortt also sits as chair of the County’s Community Development Commission.

SOUND OF SILENCE
Surprisingly, no council members were willing or able to stand up for the winery’s application or the winegrowing sector in PrinceEdwardCounty. None mentioned the jobs that this and other wineries have created in the County. None spoke of the winery’s contribution to the County’s tax base, nor to the County’s economic vitality.

Instead, council appeared inclined to grant Burris’s wish to preemptively stop the winery rezoning, in the purely theoretical event that problems arise in the undetermined future. But council has a problem. If council rejects the application, an expensive appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board will likely follow. Based upon recent precedent, council is likely to lose such an appeal.

Hillier Creek Estate’s application meets all the planning tests—provincial policy statement, the County’s official plan, and it meets the intent of the estate winery zoning enabling it to host events at the facility.

So rather than reject the winery’s application— council deferred it—effectively erasing the potential for events at Hillier Creek this summer.

Shortt drew a thick line under the penalty he and his fellow councillors were meting out.

“So until then,” said Shortt, “Hillier Creek Estates will have to operate under its current zoning?”

The councillor posed it in a form of a question but he knew the answer. In his none-toosubtle way, Shortt was directing County staff to strictly enforce the zoning bylaw at Hillier Creek Estates this summer.

Shortt believes this is necessary because the winery has held functions outside of the rules its zoning permits in the past few years. Birthday parties. Anniversaries. Canada celebrations and fireworks. It has hosted an annual Guy Fawkes celebration each fall at the winery. Recently Hillier Creek Estates hosted a fundraising dinner for Wounded Warriors Canada—helping to raise about $35,000 for Canada’s ex-military servicemen and women adjusting to life back home.

This September, the winery was due to host the Grapes of Wrath extreme endurance event, in support of hospitial foundations in Trenton and PrinceEdwardCounty, as well as the Canadian Cancer Society. But that event is now in jeopardy.

Burris argues that while supporting cancer research is “notable”, she told council the Grapes of Wrath event simply isn’t a suitable or compatible use of the property.

“Surrounding neighbours are saying enough is enough,” said Burris.

WHAT’S AT STAKE
Hillier Creek Estates employs about 20 people each year. All are local residents. The winery doesn’t hire foreign workers.

“We feel a responsibility to develop skills and opportunities locally,” said Kemp Stewart, principal of Hillier Creek Estates. “That way the funds stay in this community.”

Each summer, the winery hires three students from France who are studying at the ESA (Ecole superiere d’agriculture), the leading agricultural university in the country. The winery also hires three local students each summer to develop skills in the field, in the winery and in the tasting room.

As an estate winery, Stewart expects the number of staff to grow.

But it isn’t just council and his neighbours tossing hurdles into Hillier Creek Estates’ plans.
ROADBLOCKS
County planning staff are satisfied that Hillier Creek Estates proposal meets each of its regulatory tests, but the County’s commissioner of Planning, Engineering and Works Robert McAuley has proposed several new conditions to council’s approval of the zoning change. Included among them is major expansion of Stapleton Road—currently a quarter-mile-long gravel lane, the winery shares with a couple of neighbours. Specifically, he wants the winery to widen the road and pave it with a hard surface.

The estimated cost of the prescribed roadwork is about $30,000. The land and the money for the roadwork would all come from the winery.

Hillier Creek Estates says it will concede the land to the municipality, but refuses to rebuild and pave a County-owned road.

But as it turns out, neither the neighbours nor Stewart want Stapleton Road widened or paved.

Bill Doull lives on Stapleton Road. He is worried about the noise and additional traffic that might ensue should the winery be granted estate winery zoning.

But the antique car owner says Stapleton Road is in much better condition than most other County roads. Moreover, he worries his taxes will go up if the road is widened and paved.

“How can you justify rebuilding Stapleton, given the condition of other County roads?” asked Doull of the County roads chief.

Burris too, acknowledged that widening the road doesn’t solve the problem.

STALLED
Robert McAuley agreed to meet with Stewart again, but cautioned council that it would likely accomplish very little. He observed that without the zoning change, Hillier Creek Estates had no incentive to negotiate terms of a site plan agreement that would govern noise and other concerns.

“I don’t know what will be resolved,” said McAuley. The presumption being that council wants a resolution.

Prior to Hillier Creek Estates request for zoning changes—no complaints were made. Not to the winery, nor to the municipality.

“The neighbours are trying to get along,” said Peggy Burris explaining the absence of complaints about the winery.