The Saugeen Valley Conservation Area is freeing up hundreds of acres of rural land for possible development.
The SVCA has decided to reduce a screening buffer zone in rural areas of the watershed from 50 to 30 m.
The SVCA must review and approve all proposed building on land within the buffer zone that surrounds watercourses, slopes, shorelines and wetlands.
Now local municipal Chief Building Officials will determine which proposed developments will fall within the regulated area and refer those clients to the SCVA when appropriate.
The Authority has updated the mapping system to reflect the changes.
The old buffer zone was an issue for a proposed expansion of the Gay Lea Plant in Teeswater.
“By taking 20 m off those screening buffers it removes hundreds of acres of rural properties that will not need to be reviewed by Conservation Authority staff in our planning and regulations department, which will reduce workload and hopefully improve the speed at which staff can respond to planning & regulations applications," says Authority Chair Luke Charbonneau. “It also means a lot of people who were previously in the screening area won’t need to go through that screening process. It’s one more thing that is being done to increase speed in our planning processes and to reduce the review burden on people in the community.”
