Town Council re-approves severence of land on School Road

Written By PETER RICHARDSON

Monday night's Council meeting started with a report from Town Planner Steve wever regarding an application to sever a lot at 16 & 18 School Road into three separate lots.

Council had previously consented to the move and Jeff Hamilton, owner of the land, asked if they would consider approving once more, with one change. 

One of the lots has recently been sold and was now designated as 20 School Road, so the new application was to split the land into two lots. 

As all the conditions and approvals remained the same, Council agreed to allow the application, once more. There was one objection to the redevelopment, from a neighbour at 14 School Road, however the planner noted that this objection was answered in the development agreement and was no longer an issue.

Question Period

Previous Councillor Dan Sample, had three issues to ask Council about, with the first regarding the soccer nets and storage facility that had originally been included in the 2019 Budget, but was reallocated to other uses. 

Mayor Wade Mills answered that Council was expecting to hear a delegation, from the soccer club board, at a future Council meeting and that the issue would be dealt with at that time. 

Dan's next question was concerning the proposed changes to the street corner at the Legion. Town Clerk Jennifer Willoughby, explained that the Town was still waiting on comments from the public and officials regarding the changes. 

Finally Mr. Sample noted that, in the past, he had organized the Easter Event, for the Town and now wanted to know what was going to happen with the new Council and the event. 

Mayor Mills noted that this was not a Council sanctioned event and although supported by Council, was not on their current agenda to oversee. Dan noted that he would still organize it, however manpower was needed to actually run it. Last year, this was done by the Kinsmen and Kinnettes, however they had not been asked this year. The Mayor asked for the dates of their next meetings and said formal request would be made for their assistance once again.

Golden Horseshoe growth plan

Mr. Wever next presented a report on an extremely complex and convoluted Provincial initiative concerning the proposed Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe. The report asked that Council support the changes and so notify County Council. 

The changes affected density targets, for population and land use and boundary area extensions. The latter is of prime importance to Shelburne, as the Town no longer has developable land within it's existing boundaries. 

The details of this proposed plan are expansive, but the bottom line for Shelburne would be to have some wiggle room in expanding it's urban boundaries to allow for accommodation of it's increasing population. At this point, the matter is up for study and input, however implementation could be s simple formality, with the current Provincial Government. Council approved the report and indicated it's support of it.

User fees and charges

In other business, Council agreed that Shelburne's user fees and charges would be increased by the existing 2.5 percent cost of living increase, while Staff is reevaluating the overall structure of these items.