Page 3 - Nov. 9, 2017

Thursday, November 9, 2017 The Independent Page 3
Developer says lot coverage changes overdue
The Independent Staff
Questions? Concerns?
Petrolia Town Council meets
Tues. Nov. 14, 2017
Budget Meeting @ 5 pm Regular Council Meeting @ 7pm
There are two opportunity for public questions during the regular council meeting
Come out and voice your opinion
A Petrolia developer says he’s been waiting a long time for new rules to allow homes to cover more of the lot it sits on.
back because it covered more than 30 per cent of the lot.
Leaper says he started checking around, he found the only subdivision in town with more lot coverage was Woodland Crescent. It had applied for and received permission for the oversized homes in 2006.
Town Council will be looking at changes to its zoning bylaw Nov. 14 at an Education Session. One of the major changes is the increase in the percentage of lot coverage for homes.
Leaper questioned staff about the rule, saying many other municipalities allow larger homes on smaller lots.
Leaper said he did not apply for increased lot coverage in 2014 because town staff told him it was already being considered. He believed all developers should have the same rules.
Now, homes may only cover 30 per cent of the lot. It is suggested that increase to 35 per cent.
“With the trends in what people want to build right now, we have larger houses with covered porches and rear porches - it adds to the lot coverage.”
Leaper plans to address council about some of the inconstancies he sees in how the development rules are applied during the education session or the public meeting on the zoning changes which will be held later in November.
Bob Leaper is developing Countryview Estates. In 2014, Leaper says he had a plan for a home sent
Leaper says many area municipalities allow homes to cover up to 50 per cent of the lot and in urban areas it is much higher than that.
“It wasn’t over by much,” he adds saying he had to have the plans reworked.
After having his home rejected,
Warwick may allow use of shipping containers
The Independent Staff
Wyoming requires owners to install a peaked roof.
look at allowing the containers to be used in backyards as well.
Warwick Township may allow residents to use shipping containers in residential areas.
Warwick Township already allows for the long, steel containers to be used as long as the owner gets a building permit for it.
“People can make them into very nice sheds,” says Case.
But Mayor Todd Case says they’ll have to be spruced up a bit.
Staff brought council proposed new guidelines Monday which would restrict the containers to agricultural and industrial areas.
“If there are peaked roofs and it is sided and it’s pleasant to the eye, why not?
Most municipalities allow the shipping containers in agricultural, commercial and industrial areas. Plympton-Wyoming, Enniskillen, Brooke-Alvinston, Dawn-Euphemia, and Oil Springs all allow them in residental area - although Plympton-
The proposal also limits each property to just two and they can’t be stacked on top of each other.
“We have standards... we don’t want to allow them to look like a shipping container.”
But Case says councillors want to SofSurface building new storage area
Staff will look at all the options and bring a possible bylaw which would continue to allow the containers in residential areas.
In Print & Online - The Independent www.petrolialambtonindependent.ca
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Grogan Ford Lincoln
“We wanted to have more storage area,” he says. Prins says the company had been using containers to store some of its raw materials; the addition will replace that. He says the building is valued at about $400,000.
New 16-foot mural depicts Petrolia’s oil history
Ar st Frances Mar n, on ladder, uses screws to fasten the four sec ons of mural onto the outer wall of the Vantyl and Fairbank workshop facility along Railroad Street. Helping keep the heavy sec on posi oned are Charlie Fairbank, middle, and Mar n’s installa on assistant and friend, Ken VerBerne.
Bonnie Stevenson Photo
The Independent Staff
Line.
John Prins of SofSurface says
A Petrolia industry is adding some storage space.
the building which is already under construction will be about 11,000 square feet and similar to the structure which holds
the current manufacturing for duraSafe playground tiles.
Petrolia Council recently gave SofSurface permission to construct a new storage area which will front on Discovery
Bonnie Stevenson
The Independent
Petrolia’s oil history is the subject of a new mural now gracing the Railroad Street side of the Vantyl and Fairbank Hardware building.
It has taken some time from the time the idea was rst spoken to an actual work of art. Vantyl and Fairbank Hardware owner Charles Fairbank had the idea. “I talked to Frances about it three years ago,” he said. “Bob Tremain (since retired from his post as general manager of the Cultural Services Division) was raving about this guy. I went to Frances about a couple of murals and this is the second one.”
The giant mural, which is 16-feet long, is the work of artist Frances Martin, who has created other murals places like Watford, Oil Springs, Strathroy, Melborne, Mt. Brydges, and Mitchell’s Bay. The self-taught artist used an airbrush and sepia tones to recreate a vintage photograph of Petrolia during the oil boom days which Fairbank found while searching Lambton County archives. It was taken in the 1890s.
The mural was made in the artist’s studio and transported to the Petrolia site in four equal sections.
necessary for oil production.
The human aspect of the picture also adds to
The sections were fastened to the side of the Vantyl and Fairbank workshop facility on Nov. 4.
its appeal: two men are about to shake hands, as if sealing a new deal; a woman and her child are regarding the viewer with curiosity; two boys are roughhousing in the foreground; and several distant gures can be seen tempting fate by lounging atop the towering oil rigs.
The mural incorporates the many facets of
life in Petrolia’s oil production days. “It’s a charming picture of Petrolia in the 1890s,” says Fairbank. The picture illustrated all the structures, such as drilling rigs, oil derricks, pumps, and horse-drawn wooden tanker wagons that were
Mr. Fairbank says a third mural is in the planning stage.