Council recently approved the proposed policy directions and changes for this project at the November 3, 2020 meeting. The meeting can be watched on YouTube at www.brant.ca/LIVE and more information can be found in the timeline at the bottom of this page.
| Policy Directions for Agriculture-Related Uses |
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| Policy Directions for On-Farm Diversified Uses |
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We're updating our land-use policies to consider options for diversifying agricultural areas
throughout the County of Brant, and we need your help.
Based on Provincial legislation and a noted desire for certain permissions in our rural areas, the County is updating our agricultural policies. These changes will improve our agricultural economy and help our farms branch out and add to their income potential. This project will focus on the Province's permitted uses in the prime agricultural areas, including agricultural, agriculture-related and on-farm diversified uses (OFDUs). The goal of this policy update is to help the County of Brant enhance its agricultural systems and land base to further protect and enhance the important functions of the agricultural economy in our area. Check out the project time-line at the bottom of this web-page for more information, including key dates, contact information, and ways to get involved.
Did you know?
The Province of Ontario considers the County of Brant to be a prime agricultural area. The majority of the soil in the County of Brant is considered to have fair to high productivity for common field crops to grow. As a prime agricultural area, our planning policies are required to protect agricultural practices to ensure they are not hindered by surrounding uses.
What's Permitted in Agricultural Areas?
As a way to protect the Province's agricultural land, the Provincial Policy Statement, or PPS (2020) sets out 3 categories of uses that are permitted in prime agricultural areas, as shown below. They are meant to be general land-use permissions that guide a municipalities specific permissions in rural areas and are further described by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) in their Guidelines on Permitted Uses in Ontario's Prime Agricultural Areas (Publication 851). These permissions are dependent on the location and size of the use, and its relationship to a property's farming operation.
This includes growing crops, raising livestock, greenhouses, tobacco kilns, plant/tree nurseries, and minimal amounts of processing to make a product saleable.
Click the image to learn more about these uses.
This includes research, storage, processing, distribution, supply, sale, and auction of products grown or produced in the area's agricultural system.
Click the image to learn more about these uses.
This includes a broad range of complimentary and value-added uses such as breweries, bakeries, cafés, cooking classes, specialized trades (woodworking, welding etc.), recreational and agri-tourism uses (bed and breakfast, wine tasting etc.), retail uses (farm market, antiques, etc.) and home occupations that support rural areas (a professional office, hair dresser, day care etc.).
Click the image to learn more about these uses.
Having well established policies for agricultural areas will help protect our farmland from urban sprawl, contamination, and parcel fragmentation. Our current policies address permissions for agricultural uses, but have very few permissions for agriculture-related and on-farm diversified uses. An update to our policies can help reduce the timelines, fees, and applications attributed to establishing a use on a farm property that will help diversify our agricultural economy. If you're interested in staying up-to-date on the OFDU policy project, please visit www.brant.ca/planningprojects to be added to the circulations list.
If you have general comments about this project that you would like to submit to staff, please click here.
Project Timeline
This information will be updated with the appropriate links and documents as the project moves forward. For more information, please contact the Planning Division.
| Project Timeline - OFDUs | ||||||||
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To begin this project, we’ll introduce it to Council and the public as an information presentation at a Council meeting which can be viewed on the County's YouTube page at this link.
After the project is initiated at the information meeting to Council, a period of public engagement will begin for this project. Here are a few ways to get involved:
To summarize what we’ve heard from the public, stakeholders, and various agencies about the project, we’ll present a summary of the feedback that has helped shape the proposed policy directions.
This commenting period, as required under The Planning Act, also provides another engagement opportunity before Staff make their recommendation to Council for a decision on the changes.
This meeting will be available for viewing on the County's Youtube page at this link.
Once the By-Law for the project has been finalized and passed by the Council, the appeal period will begin. If no appeal to the LPAT has been made by the appeal date, the By-Law amendment will come into effect. From the passing of the By-Law by Council, there is an approximately 35-day appeal period that will open after the decision by Council is made and the amending By-Law is passed.
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Background Research
Appeal Period
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