Township of Blandford-Blenheim Council approved a request for an extension of a draft approved plan for a Plattsville subdivision during its regular Council meeting on Wednesday, June 18, 2025.
Dustin Robson, Development Planner for the Township, presented Council with a request from the developer of the Westside Communities subdivision for a one-year extension on the draft approved plan. Staff’s recommendation was for Council to advise Oxford County that the Township supported the extension and allow the developer more time to register the plan of subdivision or to process submitted applications for draft plan approval, an official plan amendment and a zone change.
The subject lands in question are located on the south side of Albert Street East, east of Platt Street South and west of Hofstetter Road, in the Village of Plattsville.
“This is for SB10-06-1, which received draft approval back in August of 2012,” said Robson. “For the approval, at the time, there were 34 lots for single-detached dwellings, eight lots for live-work spaces, two blocks for highway commercial use [and a stormwater management pond]. Since 2012 a total of five extensions have been provided by Council and this would be the sixth. The last one was in 2023 and that was for a two-year extension which now takes us to August 31 2025.”
The Planner explained that because ownership of the lands changed back in 2017, there have been ongoing discussions in regards to a new subdivision application coming forward.
“I believe this Council and previous Councils are well aware of this property. As you likely know, there is another draft plan submission coming to Council which would replace this one, and it would see an increase in the number of homes that would be on the site and there would still be a commercial block,” said Robson. “The reason that the applicants are asking for another extension is to ensure that this [plan] remains as a viable option if their new submission is perhaps denied or what have you. Council will see this new submission very soon, likely during the August meeting. …[Staff] are here recommending that the Township Council support the request for a one year extension which would take us to August 31 of 2026.”
According to Robson’s report, the upcoming proposal, if approved, will increase the number of residential units from 42 to 115, which consists of 99 single-detached dwellings and 16 semi-detached units. The new proposal is also set to remove the approved live/work units, and reduce the commercial block from 6.9 acres to 3.9 acres.
During the meeting, Mayor Mark Peterson said that while he appreciated that the developer was looking to increase the number of residential units, he wasn’t a fan of decreasing the commercial space.
“The one thing that kind of bothers me is the decrease in size of the commercial block from 6.9 acres to 3.9 acres, which is almost half of what they recommended. I think they were here two years ago and I know the same concept was kind of thrown up, and I remember making the point at the time that for me, I wasn’t interested in reducing that commercial size,” he said. “So I’m hoping when it comes to us in August, that 3.9 acres will be increased because we’re lacking commercial space. I know we’re lacking in homes, but we are really lacking in the commercial aspect of it; when you look to the north of our township, there are no gas stations up there at all, so that was something I wanted to see in that commercial block.”
Councillor Bruce Banbury later said that communities like Plattsville are suffering growing pains in the sense that they aren’t big enough just yet to attract large commercial franchisers.
“Once you reach a certain population, which Plattsville eventually will, it’s like a snowball and once it starts rolling, everything just mushrooms but you have to reach that threshold [first],” he said. “It would be nice to save some of that property [for commercial units] because it’s an ideal location …but in the meantime, it probably makes more sense to have more homes there.”
Peterson then reiterated that while he understood that selling homes ultimately makes more money, he wants to make sure that the community will have what it needs as it continues to expand.
“I understand that you can financially gain by putting in more housing lots,” he said. “But I’m looking down the road. Plattsville is getting to be a fair size now, there’s another expansion going on in the north, but you have to have other services. If you have houses but you don’t have services to go along with them, your town is going to have a hard time growing.”
In the end, Council unanimously approved sending a letter of support for the extension request to Oxford County.
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.
