It’s decided ! Once and for all. The drop broke the vase, it’s now or never: I’m flying off to the countryside. Family, wife and children, all of us, in the countryside. A lifelong dream will come true. Wonder !
Posted yesterday at 1:00 p.m.
Whoops ! Don’t sell your condo right away.
Happy man, your brokers have unearthed you a marvelous plot of six hectares, not too big, not too close, not too far. The notary took your savings with one hand and handed you a white and black slip with the other: “The CPTAQ informs you”.
The sheet quickly becomes more black than white. Basically, it is you who will pay the fees, taxes and others, but it is this Commission de protection du territoire agricole (CPTAQ) that really owns it. These commissioners will decide what you can do with your new Eden. Your Eden: land along a small stream bursting with walleye and trout, a small duck pond surrounded by cattails, a good hundred big healthy maple trees and all that with wi-fi, the school bus and the garbage truck. You paid a fortune to find this paradise. It’s idyllic, but it’s no longer cheap in the countryside!
There is certainly a possibility of doing something about it with all the good faith and the stubbornness that you can put into it. Yes, you can engage in farming, but nothing else. Nothing.
A derogation ?
Maybe get a waiver, remove your plot from the agricultural zone? Impossible, only a municipality can request it. You can always invest $5,000 to have a case put together by a former commissioner. The commissioners serve their term then some go to the private sector as consultants. Only the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) has a permanent vote. To justify a refusal of these commissioners, there are only 14 criteria, each more surprising than the other. In case of refusal, you can appeal. But the appeal is made before the same commissioners. A little surprising, you say? But let’s move on.
You may be able to build a residence if you demonstrate that you will derive your main income from this piece of land and that there is no other land somewhere around that would do. Six acres! How to live from that? Nice deal! I don’t want to live anywhere else. This is where I own, not elsewhere. It’s a decision for me, I think. As for changing profession, it seems to me that it is a bit excessive as a requirement.
The black sheet is clear: the Province belongs entirely to these commissioners except for a few already urbanized parts. The Province will be agricultural or it will not be!
If you ever emerge from this pit, don’t sell your condo just yet.
Authorizations?
If you emerge, you may be “allowed” to do something other than farming. The concept of authorization is entirely contrary to the concept of ownership, but never mind! You have already understood that you are not at home, but at theirs. Moreover, inspectors from all walks of life come to your property without even letting you know.
There may be even more surprising conditions and restrictions in the “authorization”: unpaved parking, temporary buildings, etc. The authorization may also let you subdivide your land. Agricultural land is never divided except with such permission.
If this is the case, you must hire a land surveyor to establish the boundaries of the land(s) offered for sale. Land area is usually 3000 m2 unless there is water not too far away. So 4000m2. It’s 45,000 ft.2. The surveyor will draw up plans then he will make a request to the Provincial Cadastre Service to obtain a cadastre number, which will then be transmitted to the municipality which will issue a matricule number, then send you an invoice for “Park fees “. Which Park? Why all these numbers? Deadlines, don’t even think about it. Let’s go!
Zoning grids
It is at the municipal office that you must continue your saga. You will submit your construction project there. The municipality will check with the CPTAQ to certify a few things. Then, with the MRC to verify that their development plan allows a family residence and under what conditions! If you pass these checkpoints, you then fall back into the requirements of the Municipal Zoning By-law.
You can then request the zoning grids crushed by a town planner with these small squares filled with A, B, C, then AB, AC, BC, etc. Explain to yourself, it will be more prudent. Happy man, it seems possible that you could eventually consider building a single-family residence, not multi-generational, without a tenant in the basement, not attached, with a garage no bigger than the house, excluding a list of prohibited materials, at such a distance from the road, in such alignment, with precise side margins and with access certified by the fire brigade, of course.
You begin to understand that the campaign isn’t what it used to be.
You don’t sell your condo right away.
Now you need to locate the artesian well, the false skeptic and the drain field. A certified percolation engineer is required. The rules are strict. If you have more than five bedrooms, you will fall into the large models. The septic field will force you to cut down half of your maple trees that you couldn’t even approach yesterday and will change your entire layout, because no vehicle can pass over it.
Don’t sell your condo right away.
It is now the turn of the Environment. Their rules are innumerable and completely vague. Your little dock on the stream: forget it! Species still unknown could see the light of day there one day. No work either to create a small beach, a mini beach, to move three rocks… for the children. Never dare that. The duck pond, you need a plan prepared by a certified biologist and someone somewhere will like it or not. But that’s not the point: an aerial photo has identified your plot as a “hot spot” for wetlands. You are taken.
Wetlands are the most feared thing if you think of the countryside as your home.
Since 2017, wetlands have plagued the entire province. The gurus of the Ministry of the Environment see to it. There are several kinds of wetlands or water bodies. You need a professional or a holder of a university degree in biology, environmental science or landscape ecology and, where applicable, with the skills determined by government regulations (art. 46.0.3 [1] LQE) to decide if it is a swamp, waste water, rainwater, a clogged irrigation channel or just dirt.
Otherwise, there is no question of the municipality issuing the building permit. Three paths are available to you: replace the wet land with another land that you will give to the municipality, which may refuse it, pay an undetermined compensatory sum, but which may be higher than the value of the land or… stay in town .
Do not sell your condo. Sell the land? If possible !
It’s made expensive, the campaign. Maybe not for the world either.