Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council ultimately determined that a proposed animal crematorium near Innerkip does not meet the criteria for an On-Farm Diversified Use (OFDU) during its regular meeting on Wednesday, January 14, 2026.
Council first considered the Official Plan amendment and zone change application with site-specific policies in October 2025, but the decision was deferred to a later date.
During the October meeting, Township Development Planner Dustin Robson explained that the applicants, Matthew and Jacklynn Bowcott, were looking to build a 10,000-square-foot animal crematorium on approximately 2.37 acres of land on their 78.7-acre property.
According to the proposal, the facility would focus on equine and companion animals, and while the euthanasia of small animals would not take place on-site, equine euthanaisa might. Animal remains would be transported to the site by truck for cremation, and the operation would run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Plans for the establishment also included 24 parking spaces, an outdoor garden, and a secondary road access to Blandford Road.
The property is currently zoned as A2 – General Agricultural Zone, and the Bowcotts were seeking a rezoning to Special General Agricultural Zone (A2-sp) to permit the animal crematorium as an OFDU.
An OFDU, as indicated in the Official Plan (OP), provides reasonable opportunities for farmers to diversify their farming operation and/or supplement their income by allowing certain small scale, farm-related business activities to be established as a secondary use on their farm.
Robson said in October that staff were of the opinion that the proposal as presented did not follow the direction of the Provincial Planning Statement or meet the OP’s definition of OFDU.
The planner said the main concerns were:
- Land: The operation would be using 2.37 acres of land, including the building, parking, landscaped areas, outdoor storage, well and septic systems, the new driveway and a three-metre wide buffer, exceeding the OP’s two-acre limit for OFDUs.
- Employees: The OP permits two off-site employees and requires a farmer to live on-site. The Bowcotts are proposing employing between six and 12 people.
- Farming: OFDUs are supposed to allow for secondary agricultural uses. The property owners do not have a valid Farm Business Registration Number and rent the land for cash cropping to an off-site farmer. The Bowcotts are not actively involved in farming and do not earn a majority of their income from agricultural activities.
- Size: The crematorium building is proposed to be 10,000-square-feet, and the OFDU limit is 6,000-square-feet.
- Location: The OP indicates that an OFDU should be located within the established building cluster on the farm and use an existing driveway. The proposed operation is to be located in a field away from the main cluster with a new driveway.
During that same meeting, Council heard from a number of nearby residents who expressed their concerns with the proposal, many of which centered around health risks from the emissions, the noise, the smell, increased traffic on Blandford Road, possible contamination to the local water sources and the general impact to the surrounding lands.
Council’s deferral was intended to give the Bowcotts’ time to take the concerns into consideration and to have further discussions with planning staff, and to give Council more time to absorb the information.
The applicants’ agent Danieli Elsenbruch of Zelinka Priamo Ltd., has since advised Council that the owners wished to proceed with their proposal as originally presented and with no changes.
At the January 14 meeting, Robson said that no concerns were raised through internal circulation to departments and agencies. He added that staff received nine letters in support of the operation from the public, as well as 13 letters and a petition with 290 signatures opposing it.
The planner said while staff were not disputing the need for animal cremation services in Oxford County, it simply did not meet the qualifications for OFDU.
“We do see a need for this in Oxford County in terms of the use, …but what we’re here to say is that the use itself, as proposed at this scale, is not an On-Farm Diversified Use in our opinion,” said Robson. “We’re here to recommend that Council deny the proposed zone change application, and to recommend that Oxford County council deny the proposed Official Plan Amendment application as well.”
Elsenbruch then took the opportunity to speak to why the proposal should move forward, addressing some of the planning department’s concerns.
“I just would like to clarify that in terms of the proposed location, we have considered other locations inside the site, and any other location would require removal of cultivated fields,” she said. “Because of several other constraints on the site, the location proposed is the one that has less.”
She also noted that although the entire project area takes up 2.37 acres of land, the building itself is only 10,000-square-feet, and that the incinerators would not be taking up that entire space.
“In terms of the building size, the four units we are proposing to have for cremation are really small in comparison to the entire building,” said Elsenbruch. “…When we talk about the building size, it’s also important to consider that we have to meet all the requirements of the Ontario Building Code. …It’s not an entire building designated for the incineration, but all the other pieces that are important and necessary to be within the building.”
The agent also went on to say that an “animal crematorium meets the general intent of the relevant assessment for OFDU and agriculture-related uses, which are permitted uses in prime agricultural areas.” She also added “the proposed development “provides direct service to agricultural operations and reduces disruption to individual agricultural operations by reducing on-farm burial of animals.”
As far as public concerns, Elsenbruch said air quality and noise studies concluded the operation would meet applicable guidelines and that other concerns related to transportation and operations had been addressed.
“It’s still our professional opinion that the proposed development is appropriate and desirable for the lands and represents good land use planning,” said Elsenbruch.
After several residents had the opportunity to share further concerns about the proposed operation, Councillors Tina Young and Nancy Demarest said they would not be supporting the application.
“It looks like a beautiful proposal and application, and it sounds wonderful, but unfortunately, I don’t feel I’m able to support this application based on the recommendations from the planner,” said Young.
“This is a business that is highly regulated so I don’t have any particular concerns that there will be any environmental issues. The applicants have been very thoughtful and comprehensive in their approach, and I have no doubts that they would be great corporate citizens; they’ve proven that already in their other businesses,” added Demarest. “I have no doubts about the business case [either] because obviously there’s a real need, but at the end of the day, all that is kind of irrelevant. What you’re proposing here is not secondary–in either fact or in spirit–as a farming operation. The decision that we have to make here at Council is a planning decision. …Anybody that knows me, knows I’m a big supporter of business, especially in rural Oxford County, but at the end of the day, I just can’t make it fit the criteria that we need in order to protect our agricultural land.”
As per staff’s recommendation to notify Oxford County that the Township did not support the Official Plan amendment, and per the recommendation to deny the zone change, the vote was then carried unanimously.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
