There were calls for further modifications to a new Sarnia zoning bylaw on Monday.
Errors were identified when the second draft was presented to council during a public meeting.
Mark Huzevka noted the zoning on his commercial property, at 2109 London Line, has suddenly changed in the document.
"For decades, prior to my ownership, this property was the Clearwater Township office building," said. "On the current zoning -- map 52 -- it's zoned as commercial and [in the] proposed zoning bylaw it's changed to agricultural zoning."
Huzevka said aside from the airport zoning, there are only three zonings outside of the settlement boundary; rural residential, agricultural and natural environment.
"In my opinion, it's ridiculous to change the zoning of the historically commercial property to agriculture, when it was never intended for any agriculturally zoned uses," he said. "When I looked further into this discrepancy, I noticed that my commercial property was not in a unique situation, because there is not one commercially zoned property outside of the settlement area in the proposed bylaw."
Councillor Terry Burrell asked for some safeguards for property owners.
"If this has happened to this fellow [Huzevka], are there other areas in this overall plan where people are going to take a look and find out something they thought they had in their zoning... they don't have once all the bylaws are passed," said Burrell.
"Can we get some kind of reassurance that people who have had their properties changed significantly -- for the negative in terms of their perception of what they have -- have been at least contacted so that they don't get blindsided?"
Community Services General Manager Stacey Forfar welcomed all of the input from the public meeting and said council could direct changes to the bylaw before final approval.
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said the final draft will be considered for approval in the new year.
The new bylaw simplifies and streamlines the document, conforms with updated policies / principles from the province, implements the new official plan, pre-zones land for intensification and respects recent development approvals. Once approved, it will replace the city's existing one created in 2002.