Huron County Council Approves Changes to Allow More Flexible Housing Options in South Huron

by Bob Montgomery

Huron County council has approved an Official Plan Amendment for the municipality of South Huron.

Senior Planner Craig Metzger says the amendment itself was to amend the policies of South Huron's Official Plan to deal with the shortage of housing in the municipality. The purpose of the changes was to provide more flexible housing options and in particular, to allow more residential units in their towns and villages, and more intensification in existing urban neighbourhoods.

Metzger says the reason it went to county council for approval was that there was a concern from some residents that approvals related to housing should be part of the broader discussion of amendments to the South Huron official plan. He explains there is an amendment process planned for the entire South Huron official plan this year and some residents felt this amendment should be part of the broader review and should not be done at this time, but should be deferred until later in the year.

County council felt the changes were needed now, and similar changes had been made in other municipalities across the county, so this would just bring South Huron up to those other municipalities. Council also felt the changes that are being proposed are not likely going to change as a result of the upcoming broader review of all of the components of the official plan. The changes would be made anyway, so it makes sense to get them done now so they can start using them.

Metzger says the changes are essentially related to density, so the additional residential units would allow the owners of houses, like a single detached dwelling, to add up to two additional apartments. That could be two in the house, or one in the house and a second one in a detached structure. That would provide more places for people to live on an existing lot because there could now be a total of three units on one lot.

There are more apartments and larger apartment buildings being built in Exeter and in other municipalities and they've seen a lot of growth in the last two or three years, said Metzger, but they still don't have enough housing, and housing is very expensive, so if you can have more houses in a smaller area, that will bring the cost down and make houses more affordable.