Burlington Agricultural & Rural Affairs Advisory Committee Meeting

Jo-Anne advised members that BARAAC has an annual budget of $2,500 which can be used to attend seminars/workshops, provided the expenditure is approved by the committee.
When committee members are providing presentations at meetings, Jo-Anne asked for them to be sent two days prior to the meeting so staff have the opportunity to review and be prepared with comments, if necessary.
Jo-Anne advised that the webpage for BARAAC on the city's website is up and can be viewed at www.burlington.ca/baraac. Members were encouraged to review the webpage and provide feedback on additional information that would be useful to the committee and/or the public.

Kelly provided a brief overview of the land use planning framework in the rural area and noted that the Provincial Policy Statement (PPS) is the overarching Provincial document that directs and informs municipal Official Plans, in addition to Provincial plans, such as A Place to Grow, the Niagara Escarpment Plan and the Greenbelt Plan. As Burlington is a part of a two-tier system, the City's Official Plan must conform to and not conflict with the Halton Regional Official Plan.

Jamie and Vanessa provided a general overview of agriculture and land use planning in Burlington, from an agricultural perspective. Jamie stated that there are many documents that inform municipal Official Plans (OP); however, there can be differing or conflicting interpretations of policies, resulting in uncertainty for the agricultural community.
Jamie shared the Regional Official Plan Amendment (ROPA) 38 timelines and resulting key issues for the agricultural community: (1) Agriculture vs Natural Heritage; (2) Extent of Key Features; (3) Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs ); and (4) Permitted Uses.
Vanessa discussed the variations between Regional and Provincial mapping of the Agricultural System and the Natural Heritage System in relation to the Adopted Burlington Official Plan (2018) and the Regional Official Plan, which has not yet implemented the Provincial mapping.

8.
Other Business:

Vanessa shared highlights from the Red Tape Red Carpet Task Force Rural Focus Group meeting that took place on May 15, 2019 at Capstone Farm with Mayor Meed Ward and noted some of the top ideas were to create more clarity in policies, zoning and definitions with a focus on encouragement of farm diversified uses to support farm viability. Jo-Anne noted that as a result of this meeting, the Mayor brought forward the following staff direction at the Planning & Development Committee meeting of May 21, 2019:

Direct the Director of City Building to consider revisions to adopted Official Plan policies that are within the City's legislative authority, based on recommendations from the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee and report back to Council as to the appropriateness of preparing Official Plan modifications for Regional consideration through the scoped re-examination of the Adopted Official Plan Study.

With the time sensitivity of the scoped re-examination of the Adopted Official Plan Study, committee agreed that the June meeting will be held at City Hall and should be focused on discussion around OP policies to reduce Red Tape and uncertainty for rural and agricultural communities. The committee will discuss their feedback at the June meeting and Kelly will prepare a response to each item for discussion in September, to assist the committee in determining next steps.
Action: Members to provide feedback to Vanessa who will input into table provided by Kelly.
The Rural Active Transportation Study update will be rescheduled to September.
Jo-Anne reminded members to sign up for the Citizen Action Labs taking placed on Saturday, May 25 at 10 a.m. at Mainway Auditorium and Wednesday, May 29 at 2 and 7 p.m. at Central Library.

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