Flower and vegetable farm spent $150,000 to apply for minor zoning amendment
After seven years and $150,000, Ron Miller’s application for a minor zoning amendment was rejected.
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
OTTAWA — A hint of emotion rises in the voice of vegetable farmer Ron Miller as he acknowledges the community support he’s received in a public battle with city hall that could push him out of farming altogether. The City of Ottawa is trying to shut down the longstanding business sidelines that are crucial to keeping Millers Farm and Market in Manotick economically viable, a fight that has captured the attention of his village about 25 km south of the city core.
“I didn’t know I was that well thought of in the community, but you know, I’ve given back to the community and now they’re out to support me,” said the 81-year-old farm founder. “It’s unreal,” he added.
The outpouring of support includes visits by strangers to the farm asking how they can help. Others walked up to him at a recent funeral to offer the same.
Miller caused a stir last month when he said the popular farm and agritourism destination would have to close if the city of Ottawa has its way. The Rideau Valley Drive business, just south of Manotick, has three accompanying businesses: snowplowing, excavating and trucking operations, and the city wants them out. In a 19-6 vote on Nov. 12, city council rejected the farm’s minor zoning amendment to commercial to accommodate those existing uses as a “concerning precedent that would severely erode protections” for prime agricultural land. The offending enterprises have been operating for at least 10 years.
Miller told Farmers Forum that the application process took almost seven years and cost $150,000 in consultants’ fees to supply the documentation required by the city.
He’s now prepared to spend “maybe another $50,000 or $100,000” challenging the city’s decision at the Ontario Land Tribunal. He wants fewer than 10 acres of the 480-acre farm to change to commercial zoning. The subject site comprises the existing farmyard facilities located on a gravel hill on the farm’s poorest ground, according to Miller.
He traces this latest showdown with the city to a neighbour’s complaint. “He’s been a thorn in my side, like the Hatfields and the McCoys for the last 25 years. He tried to shut me down 25 years ago for selling berries and pumpkins because he didn’t like the cars coming in,” he said. Another complaint led to a zoning change for the farm store because of a few antiques being sold alongside the produce.
The farm draws thousands of visitors each year for its combination of wagon rides, pumpkins and fresh produce sold at the farm market store. But that’s not enough to make a self-sustaining and growing operation, he explained. An off-farm source of revenue is still required to subsidize the operation. “That’s how you survive these days. Like the guy who used to farm with 25 or 30 cows but cannot stay in business anymore.”
He explained that when his son, Simon, returned home to farm in 2007, it triggered the need to expand. They started adding tractors that could also be used for contracted snowclearing operations in the winter. They now have 25 snow tractors, 12 transport trucks, a couple of excavators and a number of backhoes, according to Miller, for a total count of 51 equipment pieces recorded by the city. Along the way, they managed to buy two neighbouring farms and another 60 acres of cropland in Richmond.
“I’ve been punished for my own success,” Miller said. “Every dollar I ever made went back into growing the farm.”
