Are bylaws being enforced?

January 7, 2015 · 0 Comments

In 2002 we considered ourselves among the most fortunate to have found a comfortable home on five acres in beautiful, rural King Township.
What a privilege to live in the Happy Valley Forest on the Moraine, part of Ontario’s Greenbelt. If only to ourselves, we pledged to be faithful caregivers of this part of the Moraine and to abide by the stipulations spelled out in the zoning documents.
Now, 12 years later, our home is bordered, immediately on the east and the west, with businesses which involve machinery and large vehicles. Upon our enquiries, it was reaffirmed by the Township’s zoning office that our property, as well as all the properties on our road, were zoned “Rural General,” which permits a house and personal farming (garden) as well as a home office, but no machinery.
Both times when we realized that our new neighbours were in fact businesses, we immediately brought that fact to the attention of the Township office. Absolutely nothing was done that we could see. When we kept asking questions, answers were evasive: “Yes, this is happening all over the township. It’s very complicated. There’s little we can do.”
The solution doesn’t seem so complicated to many of us on this sideroad. The stipulations of the zoning bylaws simply need to be enforced. Why aren’t they? Have the zoning bylaws been amended without residents of King Township being informed? Residents really deserve explanations to what we see taking place in our community.
Troy and Anne Beretta
King Township