The five-year review of Grey County's Official Plan continued Saturday morning with a special public open house held in Markdale.

The Saturday open house was the third opportunity for residents of the county to comment on the review of the Official Plan. Like at the first two open houses held in Owen Sound and Durham, attendance was light and comments were relatively benign.

Grey County Planning Department representatives were on hand to answer questions and discuss the potential changes coming forward as part of the review process.

Grey County Council adopted the Official Plan in 1997. The document was given final approval by the Ontario Municipal Board in 2000. In 2005 county council decided that a five-year review was necessary and the review process began.

The process leading up to the implementation of an Official Plan for Grey County was extremely controversial. The county was ordered in the early 1990s by the Rae government to get its planning act in gear after lot creation issues around Grey County and the rest of the province became very controversial.

More than a decade later, the quiet public response to the Plan's first official review indicates a level of public satisfaction with the planning policies the county implemented to satisfy the province.

County planners at Saturday's meeting said many of the comments they have encountered at the various public open houses have been specifically related to individual property concerns.

"In general terms, the plan has been working," explained County Planning Director Janice McDonald. "It has preserved and protected our best agricultural lands and our specialty crop lands," she said.

McDonald said the original adoption of the Official Plan was a more controversial process because the whole idea was brand new to the population.

"When we did the initial plan it was new to everybody - a county Official Plan. This was something that was going to impact everybody," she said. The review process is a chance to fine tune and tweak the plan - it is not a process to re-write the entire document.

"Five-year reviews are opportunities to modify and clarify the issues. We knew when the process started there were issues we had to address," said McDonald.

Official Plans set broad land use goals for a municipality usually for a period of 20 years. They are "living documents" and can be amended or reviewed over time.

For the past several years, the county's planning department has been gathering information for the official review of the plan. They have received comments from local municipal planning departments - many local municipalities have their own Official Plans that must work hand-in-hand with the county's document, recommendations have been received from the county's planning committee, changes to provincial policy have been accounted for and planning staff members themselves have added input based on their experiences working with the plan on a day-to-day basis.

County planners have identified a number of changes they are recommending be made to the plan.

Ultimately, county council will decide how the Official Plan is modified, although the provincial government is the final approval authority on the matter.

The changes to the plan being recommended are not major in nature. Land use policies will remain stable in Grey County with various constraints and tweaks added to the various designations - should the recommended changes move forward.

Recommended modifications include:

Growth Management - implementation of policies and projections from the Growth Management Study.

Agricultural - clarification on farm sizes, removal of surplus farm dwelling severances, Minimum Distance Separation for existing lots of record and allowance for increased small scale commercial/industrial opportunities.

Special Agriculture - removal of surplus farm dwelling severances, permission for wineries, clarification on farm size and Minimum Distance Separation for existing lots of record.

Rural - rewrite of rural development criteria and rural consent policies, Minimum Distance Separation of existing lots of record and removal of plans of subdivision in the Rural designation. Any future plans of subdivision in Rural will be by amendment/secondary plan only.

Settlement Areas - Restructuring of settlement areas to Primary, Secondary and Tertiary (from the current Urban, Urban Fringe and Hamlet). New policies will be proposed for each of the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary settlement areas, based on part on Growth Management Study recommendations.

Staff have also recommended the removal of some Hamlets as designated settlement areas as well as some boundary adjustments on other Hamlets. In addition, a new designation, Recreational Resort Area, will be added which applies to some developments with the Town of The Blue Mountains. Removal of the Urban Fringe designation has also been recommended.

Mineral Resource Extraction - Implementation of policies and mapping from the Aggregate Resource Inventory Master Plan. No new non-farm lot creation will be permitted in areas identified as Aggregate Resource Areas. Clarification will also be provided on study requirements for new aggregate operations. Increased rehabilitation policies have also been added.

Natural Environment - Introduction of Significant Woodlands and clarification on the scale/scope of Environmental Impact Studies, and who can complete them.

Cultural Heritage - Minor revisions and been made and staff recommends further study or the issue.

Utilities - Policies have been added in to allow for renewable energy systems.

Servicing - Updates in accordance with the 2005 Provincial Policy Statement. Specific policies have been added to address full, partial and privately serviced communities.

Water Taking - Clarification on when an Official Plan Amendment is needed and recognition that commercial water taking is a land use.

Groundwater Management and Protection - Implementation of policies and mapping from the Grey Bruce Ground Water Study for municipal wellhead protection areas.

Bill 51 Changes - New policies for community improvement plans at the upper tier level, accessory apartments and defining what constitutes a complete application.

The county's planners will now review input received at the open houses, from lower-tier municipalities and various agencies to determine what edits need to be made to the Official Plan. A mandatory public meeting will be held in early September to review the final conclusions. County council is expected to adopt the revised Official Plan this coming fall.