Planning furor in Southwold

Over 200 Shedden and area residents attended a special Southwold council session on Monday, March 30, to protest a rezoning to allow development of up to 161 residential units on a 10-acre property at 9210 Union Road …but as Mayor Grant Jones admitted candidly, it was too late.

Residents, some of whom threatened to toss out the existing council members in this autumn’s municipal elections, seemed most concerned about the potential density of the subdivision proposed by Domus Developments of London, which involved townhomes and a three-storey apartment building.

However, as Elgin County Planning Director Mat Vaughan pointed out, the proposal conformed to the Ontario Provincial Planning Statement, which called for intensification of residential uses within existing settlement areas which had both municipal water and sewage systems.

Shedden is currently on such a water system and Southwold is in the midst of installing a sewage system there.

In 2017, the township had started an environmental assessment study on providing sanitary sewers and sewage treatment for both Shedden and Fingal.

That study took several years and was presented to council in 2021. Construction of a sewage system started in Fingal in 2025, and would continue this year, he said.

The proposal also conformed to both Elgin County’s and Southwold’s official plans, he said.

Mayor Jones said given that, had council denied the rezoning, Domus could have appealed that decision to an Ontario Land Tribunal which would have certainly sided with the developer.

For more details, see the April 1 edition of The Aylmer Express.

(AE/Rob Perry)