DAN CEARNS, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, for The Standard
BROCK: The Township of Brock has granted a local family an exemption to the municipal interim control bylaw so they can build their dream home.
At a special council meeting, on Wednesday, January 13th, councillors voted to allow work to begin on David and Ruby Lancaster’s new modular home, by granting an exemption to the bylaw.
In late November, councillors voted to pass an interim control bylaw “to prohibit the establishment of Supportive Housing and Modular Construction, including Manufactured Dwelling Houses, for a period of twelve months, in order to allow for the appropriate completion of further research and consultation.” The bylaw was originally created to slow down and allow for more time to study the Region of Durham’s 50 unit supportive housing development in Beaverton.
“What this is really all about is, being fair to the Lancasters, and letting them proceed with building their dream home,” Ward 5 Councillor Lynn Campbell explained.
The Lancasters have been Brock Township residents for over 60 years. They started the process of planning for their new home in 2018, and they hired the building company of Royal Homes for the project.
“This was a collateral damage issue that is hopefully going to be fixed here,” Ward 1 Councillor Michael Jubb said. Ward 4 Councillor Cria Pettingill questioned why this situation required a special meeting.
“Yesterday the provincial government announced a new declaration of emergency, and also a new round of lock-down restrictions, most of which take effect at midnight tonight, including a stay at home order, as well as additional limits which also apply to construction. We don’t have all of the details of the regulations at this time, but there was a discussion at the emergency control group yesterday, based on the restrictions that were placed on the province during the [first emergency declaration announcement] construction was limited to essential [jobs]. However, it did allow some construction to proceed, if permits had already been issued prior to the restrictions being put in place,” CAO Dean Hustwick stated.
Mr. Hustwick added granting a bylaw exemption at this meeting would allow the Lancasters to be issued a permit prior to the provincial restrictions coming into effect.