RM OF STE. ANNE ZONING BY-LAW REVIEW

On March 21, 2023, the RM of Ste. Anne held an Open House in Richer for members of the community to come and see the proposed changes to our land use planning policy, ask questions, and provide their feedback to Municipal representatives. What is a Zoning By-law?

Before understanding this, we must first understand municipal land use planning and the other legislation that regulate what a zoning by-law can contain.

The Municipality is responsible for sustainable land development within our geographical boundaries. This is done under the authority provincially of The Planning Act. Under this Act, Council has enacted the foundational municipal planning policy, the Development Plan by-law. This document imposes development policies for certain ‘designated areas’ and establishes where those areas are located. To give an extreme oversimplification, the Development Plan says what lands can be subdivided, and into how many lots, of what minimum size, can they be split. This plan serves to preserve valuable agricultural lands, conserve sensitive eco-systems, focus residential areas to serviced corridors, and encourage economic development where appropriate.

The Zoning By-law is another land use planning layer which must conform to the Development Plan. The Zoning By-law establishes various Zones within the designated areas set under the Development Plan. These Zones set out what types of that there are minimal conflicts between adjacent land uses.

The Zoning By-law further establishes minimum separation distances between uses, property lines, hazardous or sensitive areas, and sets minimum property sizes for those intended uses. This document sets policies for various uses to ensure that activities are managed in a sustainable fashion to avoid being a hazard or nuisance to neighbouring properties.

The Open House was well attended by many members of the community, with Council, staff and the retained consultants from WSP on hand to answer any questions and hear what individuals had to say about the proposed zoning policies and mapping. But we’re not done with this project yet!

Next Steps:

Kari Schulz, Senior Planner with WSP, will now be consolidating all of the feedback received during the Open House and will be preparing a report to Council. Council’s job will then be to go back to the draft zoning by-law and determine what to keep, what to change, and what to remove. When Council is satisfied that they have a Zoning By-law that will answer the RM of Ste. Anne’s needs for the next 5-10 years and beyond, they will then move to enact the by-law. This will be done by them giving ‘First Reading’ by formal resolution during a regular meeting of Council. Then, administration will schedule a Public Hearing and advertise this in the Carillon, our website, and our group

This Public Hearing is where any comments made from members of the public regarding the proposed new Zoning By-law will be officially registered in the municipal records. This Hearing may be the public’s final opportunity to have their voice be heard by Council before this draft zoning by-law becomes law.

Keep your eyes open for the notice, get engaged, share your thoughts and have your voice heard before it’s too late! Follow the instructions in the Public Notice on how to participate in this public hearing process. (Note that the Notice is not yet available as the date of this hearing has not yet been set.)

After the public hearing, unless there are significant objections, the Council will then give “Second Reading” and “Third Reading” by separate resolutions during regular Council meetings. Once 3rd reading is given, the by-law is officially enacted and in effect.

The RM of Ste. Anne wishes to express sincere appreciation to all those who took the time to reach out to our representatives throughout this entire process, including attending the Open House. This Zoning By-law is meant for proper one in the RM. Your feedback is invaluable, and we appreciate your ating a policy representative of our