Justin Miller, Development Planner was in attendance to provide Council with an overview of Application for Zone Change ZN 8-24-25. J. Miller addressed key point from the Planning Report, name that:
The subject property is described as Lot 8, Part Lots 7 & 9, Plan 73, Part 1 of 41R-3284, and is located on the east side of Norwich Avenue, lying between Alice Street and Anne Street in the City of Woodstock and are municipally known as 225 Norwich Avenue.
The purpose of the application is to rezone the subject lands to include ‘funeral home’ as an additional permitted use on the subject property. Staff are satisfied that the proposal is consistent with the intent of the PPS with respect to Settlement Areas being the focus of growth and development, and with the intent of promoting economic development.
The purpose of this application is to rezone the subject property from ‘Highway Commercial Zone (C4)’ to ‘Special Highway Commercial Zone (C4- sp)’ to include ‘funeral home’ as an additional permitted use on the subject property. No new development is proposed by this application. The proposed ‘funeral home’ use will be incorporated into an existing business located in the commercial building on the subject property, Wareing Cremation Services Inc. The current zoning allows Wareing Cremation Services Inc. to meet with people to arrange for Final Arrangements and to sell items (urns, jewelry etc.). The zone change is required to permit the use of one room as a Hold Room, the room required to transfer the deceased from a stretcher to a cremation container (casket). The Hold Room will only be used for this purpose; no setting of features, embalming, public viewing, or memorial services are proposed to take place on the subject property. Modifications to the room will include installing an exhaust fan vented to the outdoors and a backflow preventer on the source water lines as per industry regulations.
The subject property appears to comply with the relevant zone provisions including but not limited to lot area, lot coverage, and lot frontage.
Section 5.4.2 sets out Off-Street Parking required for different uses. There are currently sixty (60) parking spaces on the subject property which meets the zoning provisions for off-street parking requirements for the current and proposed uses.
J.Miller explained that Planning staff are of the opinion that adding ‘funeral home’ as a permitted use within a Service Commercial use is consistent with the evaluation criteria as set out in Section 7.3.4.2 of the Official Plan for adding new uses to Service Commercial areas. Specifically, as the proposed use will be incorporated into the existing business, and no new development is proposed as part of this application, staff does not anticipate any impacts on surrounding lands uses or land uses in the vicinity.
Furthermore, J. Miller indicated there will not be any changes to utilities, sewer and water facilities servicing the site as a result of adding the use, nor is there any anticipated impact to vehicular traffic on the City and County road system or on surrounding lands uses. Planning staff are of the opinion that the addition of ‘funeral home’ as a permitted use is consistent with the general intent and purpose of the Official Plan.
Finally, the Development Planner indicated that it was Planning staff’s opinion that the application for a zone change to permit ‘funeral home’ as a permitted use is consistent with the provisions of the Planning Act and the policies of the Provincial Planning Statement (2024) and maintains the general intent and purpose of the Official Plan and can be given favourable consideration.
Discussion
Mayor Acchione inquired whether future users would be permitted to operate a funeral home in the future at this location if the zoning is changed. In response, J. Miller advised that site plan control would be required for any proposed future growth to the business, specifically noting that a funeral home would require traffic and parking impacts to be reviewed.
John Rowell, owner/applicant, 288 Light Street, Woodstock, ON N4S 6J2, was in attendance to speak in favour of the application.
M. Schadenberg asked whether the other tenants on the property have been consulted about the development proposal. In response, J. Rowell advised that he had contacted both business owners and no concerns were raised with respect to the proposed use.
There were no further questions and no one spoke in opposition to the application.