Those who want to build an on-farm shop that meets all the rules, local, county and provincial, no longer have to go through the delays involved in a zoning change.
There’s a long history to this proposed change, and council still had some questions when it came to a decision recently.
The advantage, staff said, will be time saved for the applicant, as well as for staff and council on the posting, notice, public meeting, and waiting period for appeal that go along with a zoning change.
There was a public meeting to get comments last fall after the idea first came to council in February of 2025.
Since then, with input from the county as well as the public, the proposed rules have become more restrictive.
On-Farm Diversified Use – the official planning term – is broader than simply the manufacturing shops that have been going up on rural roads here for more than a decade.
As such, they have been an important part of broadening the rural economy both in provincial policy and at the County of Grey, where planners have been “dining out” on the idea for some years, being invited to speak at conferences on Grey guidelines.
In Southgate, the reaction has gone through stages. Concerns when manufacturing shops first were built were mainly about noise, odour and dust.
More recently, comments have mainly focused on complaints about wear-and-tear on local roads.
Planner Bill White commented that the economic development officer and some of the staff have been out to see some shops, and they employ
people from the community, and he has heard very few complaints about their operation.
“The biggest thing I think is that council’s been grappling with is traffic concerns and when they get located on
gravel roads and so forth, but I’m not sure that that has resulted in any one particular application being stopped,” he said.
With regard to farming, there remains concern in some quarters that the main activity – especially on smaller properties or those that are mostly swamp or bush – is not farming.
The uses are supposed to be secondary to the farm use. In practice, that has been applied to the size of the use compared to the entire size of the property/farm, not the relative income.
Already in its Official Plan, Southgate has wording to allow shops “as of right”, that is without a zoning change – similar to building a house. That doesn’t mean there are no requirements, it just means that the use itself is foreseen and permissible within certain rules.
But that permission has not been put into the Zoning Bylaw, and that’s the missing piece for the permission to go into effect.
“Council is bound by the Official Plan; landowners are bound by the Zoning Bylaw,” planner Bill White told council.
Coun. Monica Singh Soares asked how many OFDUs had been approved in the last two years, and was told that from January 2024 to the meeting in March, about 32 applications had been received.
Since council’s decision, proposals meeting basic requirements, businesses that meet the rules can go straight to the building department for a permit.
But if for example, there isn’t a 150 metre separation, then there would have to be an application for a zoning bylaw amendment and public notice, staff said.
The basic requirement is that the operation was belonging to a “bona fide” farmer living on the property, which is in active agricultural use.
For properties of 100 acres, that is:
-750 sq. m. maximum floor area
-500 sq. m. storage
-total zoned area maximum of 8,000 sq. m.
-one dry industrial use.
Properties of 50 to 100 acres are also included in the “as of right” permission:
-6,000 sq. m. zoned area maximum or two percent of lot area
-operating area of maximum 540 sq. m.
-350 sq. m. of outdoor storage.
The operating areas can’t be in an Environmental Protection zone or any closer than the 125 metre setback from a wetland where that is in place. They also can’t be closer than 20 metres from a lot line.
OFDUs must be at least 75 metres from sensitive uses if they are dry industrial and located in the farm cluster to minimize loss of farmland.
There are also specific rules for service or commercial uses, such as stores, small restaurants and others, which include a 75-metre setback from a neighbouring dwelling.
For on-farm shops, site plans are required, Deputy Mayor Barbara Dobreen pointed out, that include provision for buffers, dust control if needed, and the ability for the bylaw officer to assure that doors and windows have to be shut facing a neighbouring use if there are complaints.
Planner Bill White said there is in the site plan “substantial protection for sensitive uses and for homes that are near these.”
The Southgate rules use the provincial standards for separation from industry of different categories.
On-Farm Diversified Use are supposed to supplement farm income, add value to farm products and take advantage of agri-tourism.
When Triton reviewed the use in Southgate in 2024-25, the firm found 27 “in process”. Together, those would cover the industrial floor space about the size of a Walmart Supercentre, the staff report said.
Annually, the taxes to all three levels generated by a typical shop in 2018 was estimated at about $6,000.
In neighbouring Grey Highlands, where the zoning bylaw is being revised, a consultant proposed allowing certain shops as of right, but that is still not finalized. In that municipality the size limit is 250 sq. metres.
By M.T. Fernandes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Apr 02, 2026 at 14:19
Recent Comments