Comprehensive Zoning Bylaw

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April 5 Update:

The Town of Pelham's new Comprehensive Zoning By-Law, approved in August of 2022, has come into effect following an appeal process.

On August 30, 2022, Council passed the new Comprehensive Zoning By-law, which resulted from a thorough public consultation process and extensive work by Town staff. In late September 2022, the By-law was appealed by a local property owner, and as a result, the Comprehensive Zoning By-law could not come into force while the appeal was pending. The Ontario Land Tribunal approved the order on Monday, April 3, 2023, with the result that the Comprehensive Zoning By-law is deemed to have come into force on August 30, 2022, except as it relates to the owner's lands that had appealed.

The Comprehensive Zoning By-law regulates the use of land throughout the Town of Pelham in accordance with Section 34 of the Planning Act. The Comprehensive Zoning By-law has been updated to conform to the Town Official Plan, Region of Niagara Official Plan and Provincial legislation. The effect of the Comprehensive Zoning By-law will be improved development parameters that help create a more attractive, prosperous and livable community.

"With fundamental shifts in the focus of the provincial, regional, and local policy framework since the previous 1987 zoning by-law," said director of community planning and development Barbara Wiens. "Pelham has worked with public consultation, staff and Council to align the Comprehensive Zoning By-law with the current planning policy framework at all levels of government."

The Comprehensive Zoning By-law is a hybrid, using contextual zoning primarily in the Town's greenfield areas and conventional zoning in the more built-up areas and rural agricultural areas of Pelham. The new Zoning By-law reflects the Town's unique community structure, encompassing well-developed and complete urban communities, existing development areas, new greenfield opportunities, a village, a hamlet, and diverse rural and agricultural land use.


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March 2022

The Zoning By-law, By‐law No. 1136 for the Town of Pelham, was originally approved in 1987. Zoning By-law No. 1136 is out of date and requires updating as a significant period of time has elapsed since it was originally prepared more than 30 years ago. It needs to be representative of current development trends and should be made to be more flexible to respond to future changes as well. Further, the Zoning By-law needs to be updated to conform with the Town Official Plan.

There have been some fundamental shifts in the focus of the Provincial, Regional and local policy framework since the original 1987 zoning by-law. The Town of Pelham has the responsibility as a municipality to bring the Zoning By-law in line with the current policy framework at all levels of government.

Click here for additional information about the current Town of Pelham By-Law.

April 5 Update:

The Town of Pelham's new Comprehensive Zoning By-Law, approved in August of 2022, has come into effect following an appeal process.

On August 30, 2022, Council passed the new Comprehensive Zoning By-law, which resulted from a thorough public consultation process and extensive work by Town staff. In late September 2022, the By-law was appealed by a local property owner, and as a result, the Comprehensive Zoning By-law could not come into force while the appeal was pending. The Ontario Land Tribunal approved the order on Monday, April 3, 2023, with the result that the Comprehensive Zoning By-law is deemed to have come into force on August 30, 2022, except as it relates to the owner's lands that had appealed.

The Comprehensive Zoning By-law regulates the use of land throughout the Town of Pelham in accordance with Section 34 of the Planning Act. The Comprehensive Zoning By-law has been updated to conform to the Town Official Plan, Region of Niagara Official Plan and Provincial legislation. The effect of the Comprehensive Zoning By-law will be improved development parameters that help create a more attractive, prosperous and livable community.

"With fundamental shifts in the focus of the provincial, regional, and local policy framework since the previous 1987 zoning by-law," said director of community planning and development Barbara Wiens. "Pelham has worked with public consultation, staff and Council to align the Comprehensive Zoning By-law with the current planning policy framework at all levels of government."

The Comprehensive Zoning By-law is a hybrid, using contextual zoning primarily in the Town's greenfield areas and conventional zoning in the more built-up areas and rural agricultural areas of Pelham. The new Zoning By-law reflects the Town's unique community structure, encompassing well-developed and complete urban communities, existing development areas, new greenfield opportunities, a village, a hamlet, and diverse rural and agricultural land use.


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March 2022

The Zoning By-law, By‐law No. 1136 for the Town of Pelham, was originally approved in 1987. Zoning By-law No. 1136 is out of date and requires updating as a significant period of time has elapsed since it was originally prepared more than 30 years ago. It needs to be representative of current development trends and should be made to be more flexible to respond to future changes as well. Further, the Zoning By-law needs to be updated to conform with the Town Official Plan.

There have been some fundamental shifts in the focus of the Provincial, Regional and local policy framework since the original 1987 zoning by-law. The Town of Pelham has the responsibility as a municipality to bring the Zoning By-law in line with the current policy framework at all levels of government.

Click here for additional information about the current Town of Pelham By-Law.

  • Proposed Zoning By-law

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    The Comprehensive Zoning By-law being proposed is a hybrid using contextual zoning primarily in the greenfield areas of the Town and conventional zoning in the built-up areas and rural agricultural areas of the Town. There will be extensive use of graphics to illustrate the various zone provisions which is aimed at providing for ease of use. Properties that have received site-specific zoning exceptions will continue to be recognized. In addition, the General Provisions and Definitions need to be updated to reflect more contemporary standards and to eliminate discrepancies.

    The Comprehensive Zoning By-law also needs to conform to the Town Official Plan. Additionally, is anticipated that some amendments to the Official Plan will be required to address certain issues that have been identified during the review of the Zoning By-law. The amendment to the Official Plan would be considered to be a housekeeping amendment and will be presented to Council as we move through the process.

    More importantly, since the Zoning By-law was originally prepared, there have been some fundamental shifts in the focus of the Provincial, Regional and local policy framework. As a result, there is a need to bring the Zoning in line with the current policy framework at all levels of government.

  • Zoning for the Future

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    The new Zoning By-law for Pelham will reflect the Town’s community structure. The Town encompasses well-developed and complete urban communities that include existing development areas and new greenfield opportunities, a village and a smaller hamlet, as well as the diverse rural and agricultural land use context.

    The need to update the Zoning By-law provides the Town with a unique opportunity to reconsider historic zoning practices and to implement state-of-the-art and innovative strategies for development regulation. The Town’s goal is to focus on desired development outcomes both in terms of the built form and land use– and to provide a document that is both easy to understand and easy to use for a broad range of potential end-users (builders, developers, realtors, do-it-your-selfers, farmers, lawyers, surveyors). The Town’s objective to be a progressive and innovative community and that this objective is to be reflected in all of the Town's activities, including the use of up-to-date planning approaches like form-based zoning, which is highly graphic and premised on the utilization of best planning practices, including the principles of new urbanism and complete streets and communities.

Page last updated: 06 Apr 2023, 07:35 AM