WHEREAS Section 941 of the Local Government Act grants all municipalities the ability to acquire 5 dedication for park land during the subdivision process or monies in lieu of park land; AND WHEREAS Section 941 in subsection 5b does not apply to a subdivision by which the smallest lot being created is larger than 2 hectares; AND WHEREAS rural communities often have land zoned for a minimum lot size greater than 2 hectares and as a result are not able to avail themselves of this provision: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that provincial legislation be amended to increase the size of the smallest lot in Section 941 5b to be larger than 4 hectares.
Ministry of Community, Sport Cultural Development The purpose of parkland dedication and payment in lieu of parkland dedication is to provide urban greenspace for general public enjoyment. Extremely low density neighborhoods such as acreages provide sufficient private greenspace to residents such that public space is not a necessity. Thus, development in these extremely low density neighborhoods is exempt from the parkland dedication requirement. The two hectare minimum cut-off size to qualify for this exemption is quite liberal. Standard medium density development is about twelve single family dwellings per hectare. Therefore, a two hectare acreage has the same footprint area as twenty-four suburban houses. As this is a very large parcel, it is unlikely that owners would demand urban greenspace. Therefore there is no real need to raise the two hectare cut-off to four hectares at this time.