The City of Belleville’s Planning Committee has recommended city council approve a new draft consolidated zoning by-law.
The decision was made at the planning committee’s meeting on Monday.
It proposes that the city replace three existing and outdated zoning by-laws and consolidate them under one by-law.
The three by-laws have a total of 31 residential zones, 21 commercial zones, and 16 industrial zones. Under the proposed draft by-law, it looks to consolidate them into five residential zones, six commercial zones, and five industrial zones.
New provisions are also in the draft that looks to encourage alternative housing options and active transportation.
Revisions have been made from the original draft with the latest version calling to remove size restrictions for RVs, trailers, and boats as well as well as revise residential lot requirements and home occupation provisions.
The chair of the Planning Committee, Paul Carr, praised the work of Director of Engineering Stephen Ashton and Principal Planner Thomas Deming for their work in coming up with the document.
“I know I hit this nail on the head quite a bit but I’m going to continue to pound it … here’s another example where the City of Belleville staff are being aggressive, being innovative, and working hard to make it easier for growth and development to occur,” Carr told the committee.
Carr said staff also worked hard to bring innovation into the new by-law.
“It reflects the past in terms of some of the historical development patterns, new uses, new terms, strategies, tools, simple language, user-friendly tables, and then to get on to talk about the transformation of dwelling terms, increased flexibility within residential zones, modernized parking, introduction of mixed use zones, accessibility parking requirements, expanded home occupations, and then the smaller things like backyard hens and RVs and all the rest of it,” Carr said.
Carr said there were no “gatekeepers” in the building and that the new by-law will help with much faster growth when it comes to development.
The proposed draft consolidated zoning by-law would take immediate effect on the day of final passing.
Council will have final say at a future meeting.