And it’s back.
Remember the municipality’s comprehensive zoning by-law project, Zone Clarington? The project that was initiated in January 2016. As many of you recall the Rural Area Zoning was first to be reviewed. And it was – however, in September 2020, due to it becoming exceptionally controversial, Clarington Council instructed Planning staff to pause their work and tabled the rural portion of Zone Clarington for a period of three months.
To jog your memory, in November 2018 [the election was in October], a first draft for the rural portion was released proposing to add 33,600 acres to Environmental Protection. The majority of the land being added is woodlots, wetlands and other recognizable features and a buffer protection of these features. This included 13,340 acres of lands identified Minimum Vegetation Protection Zone, as required by Provincial Policy.
This didn’t sit well with rural property owners as the proposed zoning absorbed most, if not all, of the agricultural designated property they had left.
