BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The town of Hudson is one step closer to lifting its development freeze imposed more than two years ago, as it approved the final amendments to its new urban planning bylaws Monday evening.

The new regulations, which were retooled following a comprehensive public consultation processes earlier this year that generated clear opposition to some of the proposals that had been outlined in the draft version of the bylaws in January, provide better protection measures of natural spaces and the town’s newly created list of remarkable trees.

Among the major changes to the final version of the planning regulations that were adopted was the elimination of a contribution to a parks fund that would have been imposed on  homeowners who planned to demolish a residential building and construct a new dwelling or renovate more than 33 per cent of their home; and restrictions that would have prohibited the cutting of a tree that was more than five centimetres in diameter without a permit.

The new regulations maintain current tree-cutting restrictions, which require a felling permit for a tree that is larger than 10 centimetres in diameter, while a park fund contribution of 10 per cent will only be imposed on the owner of a residential building who seeks to add two or more units to an existing building.

For commercial buildings, the imposition of a 10-per-cent park fund contribution proposed for owners who planned to expand their establishments by more than 25 per cent was eliminated, as was a 10-per-cent fee for owners who change the use of a building.

The ability for golf courses to obtain a permit to cut up to 10 per cent of the trees on their territory per year has also been eliminated from the final version of the regulations.

Now, the new bylaws will be submitted to the MRC Vaudreuil-Soulanges for review to make sure they conform to the larger region’s development guidelines. That process could take up to 120 days. Only then will the development freeze imposed by Hudson council in 2022 be lifted.

Mayor Chloe Hutchison said she is pleased with the result, explaining the new planning bylaws protect remarkable trees, safeguard buffer zones between residential and other zones, reduce the deforestation of setback strips in residential areas, eliminate the backfilling of wetlands with very few exemptions, increase fines for tree-cutting that align with minimums set by provincial authorities and increase the contributions demanded from developers who seek to subdivide the largest undeveloped areas in the municipality.