Should severing surplus farmhouses from the land be permitted?

Monday, December 6, 2010

by Mary Baxter

Like many farmers in Ontario, brothers Randy and Tim De Block have assembled the land base for their mixed farm operation by buying smaller farms. They own half of the 4,000 acres between Mitchell and Monkton in Perth County where they grow cash crops. But the acquisitions have meant acquiring houses they don't need.

Randy has two. Right now, they're rented to his son and a friend of his son's. The landlord tenant relationship is good, but that hasn't always been the case. He's had to deal with heating bills "that don't get paid and the tenants are gone" and one tenant who sued.

Severing the houses from the farms might provide an opportunity for the next generation who might not be able to afford an entire farm right away but could buy a house. "It keeps them in the country," he says. Yet there's no guarantee the buyer would be someone familiar with farming. That might create conflicts.

Right now, Randy doesn't have much choice in the matter because Perth prohibits surplus farmhouse severances. Two of the county's member municipalities, West Perth and the Township of Perth South, have appealed the policy to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB).

John Van Bakel, West Perth's former mayor and a beef producer and cash crop grower who farms near Brodhagen, led the challenge. He wants severances permitted in the two municipalities. The county's two other municipalities, which hold the majority of county council seats, don't, so the issue went to the OMB, which adjudicates planning disputes.

Conflicting direction within the Provincial Policy Statement has complicated the issue and ignited flare-ups in many council chambers, not just Perth's. The statement establishes the priorities for local governments managing their land base. One section allows severance of surplus dwellings on farm; another stresses that protection of prime agricultural land must remain a priority.

Those who support the severances argue they help stem the flow of residents from rural areas by offering affordable places to live. "We're gradually losing our community," says Bill Harmer, who farms wheat, corn, soybeans and white beans south of Mitchell. Down his road, where there used to be nine houses, there are now five. Two are rentals that "five years from now won't be here."

Opponents say severances limit livestock farmers' opportunities to expand and create the potential for conflict when people not familiar with farming move in. "It just doesn't make sense from a practical standpoint," says Don Van Damme, 34.

He finishes 3,500 hogs on his 550-acre farm between Alvinston and Inwood in Lambton County. His township, Brooke-Alvinston, permits severances. The policy affects young farmers, he says, noting 14 of the 15 farmers under 40 there are livestock producers.

He fought the township on the issue, taking it to the OMB in 2005. He lost. A year later he was elected to council and managed to reverse the decision. The fight was vicious, the victory short-lived: He quit a year and a half later and council reversed the ban.

Van Damme says his township's severance policy "is like a door that's open just a crack and some are supposed to go through." A severance near a town where agricultural activity is already restricted won't make much difference. Allow it in "the heart" of agriculture – "that's where it becomes a problem."

Ben Puzanov, a planner with the Municipality of Middlesex Centre, says severances limit expansion of livestock operations because of minimum distance separation requirements and their operators don't want to settle in a municipality that favours severances. "Liberal farm severance policies could eliminate a municipality's chances of attracting young farmers to locate within its borders," he warned this year in an Ontario Planning Journal article.

Severances can also facilitate commercial activity inappropriate for an area designated for farming and farm-related uses, he adds. Severances can inflate the value of a municipality's intact farms, making it more difficult for farmers to acquire property.

Earlier this year, the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing began reviewing the Provincial Policy Statement. Puzanov hopes the ministry will reconsider its position on surplus farmhouses. "They've probably received a lot of input for their review process."

Bette Jean Crews, president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture, says the federation supports surplus farmhouse severances but advocates tight controls. Comments to the ministry in October recommended requiring the house to be at least 25 years old, applying minimum distance requirements to each application and clarifying the definition of a surplus farmhouse. "That would stop all this OMB fuzziness," she says.

So far, no deadline is set for completing the review, says Crews.

In Perth, the OMB hearing begun in the fall is suspended until spring. Walter McKenzie, West Perth's new mayor, said in November that he anticipated council would press on, despite five fresh faces around the table.

If the appeal succeeds, Randy De Block will apply for severances although he may not sell. "At least then you have the option and it certainly adds for financial redemption on some of the high priced farmland right now," he says. "On the other hand, it might drive it up even farther." BF