A draft Discussion Paper for the Nobleton Zoning By-law review is being presented at March 9 Council; this Paper along with further feedback received from Council or public will be the basis for developing the preliminary draft of a new  by-law for the the urban area of Nobleton.  This is truly a milestone in this project and is of importance beyond Nobleton as the process being followed is the prototype for comparable future exercises for both King City and Schomberg.  I don’t believe anyone can read the Discussion Paper without gaining an understanding of why this initiative (i.e updating the zoning by-law) is very important  in terms of influencing the evolution of “the look” or “the feel” of Nobleton.  As indicated in the Staff report, next Public Meeting will be in May; in the interim, read the discussion paper and provide feedback.

As I reviewed the Paper I was very pleased to see a couple ideas/concepts receiving attention.

As a private  citizen and as a Councillor I have been frustrated at times that our villages have Design Guidelines but that is truly what they are:  guidelines; Staff and Council members can encourage adherence but that is it.  There is the opportunity to incorporate some of the guidelines into the by-law, namely those dealing with massing, height and character.

There may be opportunity to include natural heritage systems into the zoning by-law; today the zoning by-law includes residential zones on natural heritage features; consequently there is inconsistency between Official Plan and the zoning by-law.  As explained it in the Discussion Paper it may not be possible to totally eliminate this problem as the zoning by-law needs to include very accurate mapping and in some instances the natural heritage feature is subject to change due to time and weather.  I think it is worthwhile to explore to see what could be done as it is definitely a cause of of confusion or at least it adds more complexity to any application.

The Paper identifies that there may be value in creating different zones within the existing residential neighbourhoods as there were different patterns of developments.  (e.g. different front yard setbacks).  If there is desire to maintain a neighbourhood “look” one needs to be planning for the future when current housing stock will be either replaced or modified.

If you did not get engaged with this initiative at the beginning, you can look here to review information provided earlier.