Southgate is speaking up on the province plan to impose a new minimum lot size of 1,900 square feet.
Its voice, speaking from the snow belt of southern Ontario, should have an authority. Local residents and township staff have a “deep” and “wide” experience of snow banks that result now in newer areas of Dundalk, where lots are smaller than the older areas.
Lack of room to store snow from driveways on lots leads to narrowed streets and high banks that block a driver’s view at corners.
On top of that, the township pays for extra trips to truck snow away. And then there’s the rancour directed against anyone who moves snow where others have just cleared it.
A new bill proposes that a provincial Minister will have the power to set a minimum lot size on parcels of urban residential land, outside the Greenbelt Area.
Southgate Township approved its planning director sending in his comments on minimum lot size and other planned changes.
The proposed minimum lot size is about 1,900 square feet (175 square metres).
Right now, the Residential lot size in R1 areas is a minimum of 6,135 sq. ft. (570 sq. metres), while the Flato Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZO) lots are a minimum of 3,229 sq. ft. (300 square metres), the report presented at the Apr. 15 council meeting said.
If the minimum lot size was forced into Southgate’s zoning standards, the change would mean an almost 70 percent decrease to present R1 standards and 42 percent in the three large MZO areas in Dundalk.
Very little space for amenity use would be available after a dwelling unit and parking space is put on a 175 square metre lot, the report from Planning Director Ken Melanson said.
In discussing recent planning proposals, members of council have questioned proposals because of how little space occupants would have outside for their own use.
Mr. Melanson said that it is unclear if this regulation authority would apply to any of the MZO lands.
He predicted that with such small lot sizes, the municipality would spend more on snow removal as well as on by-law enforcement activity to keep driveway snow from ending up on the streets.
The change would have to be taken into account in servicing calculations with a greater number of units in a smaller area, Mr. Melanson added.
Also, in relation to MZO areas, another change proposed would mean that the province would not have to give notice of amendments to MZOs or of them being revoked.
“Staff fail to see the logic behind the removal of notice,” the report said. Staff raised a possible concern that if an MZO is revoked, with no public statement, then potentially the land would be left without a zoning status.
Another proposal is to standardize Official Plans among all municipalities in Ontario. Mr. Melanson said that doesn’t take into account local differences, and imposes costs on the lower tiers to re-work their plan.
In a smaller municipality like Southgate, that could mean the cost of hiring a third party to take on the task of revising it, which could have a possible $50,000 price tag, the report said.
Other changes affected “green development” standards, which are not in place locally.
“Some municipalities may well apply a ‘heavy handed’ approach to processing development through expensive environmental green energy requirements, or obscure study or design requirements, but this has not been the practice in Southgate, the report said.
“Provincial intervention in a planning approval process in Southgate that is working well is not welcome and is a misuse of resources.”
By M.T. Fernandes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Apr 23, 2026 at 19:52
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