land severance limitations

[Andrew Tam]

I bought about several hectares of land a few years back. It turns out I can't severance it any more according to the official plan. Are there any ways to go around this by changing the zoning of the land AND then applying for severance?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Chris Buhler]

There are likely ways to make this work. 

It depends on the municipality that you are in and their rules. They usually have planning documents online (if not, they will have some at the municipality offices). These are documents that outline what you are allowed to do as written. You could look to see if there are designations of your land that allow you to do what you want with the land (divide it for whatever purpose you are dividing it). 

If you cannot easily change the land designation, you can always appeal to the municipal government (usually a council) to give you special permission to overcome the obstacle(s) that you have for dividing your land as you would like.

This is all easiest if you are working in the same direction as the council/planners. If they announce that they are doing things kind of like plan A and you want to do something like that but it would work better if it were divided as you suggested, it will be easier to divide the land. If they are trying to stop things like plan A from happening, you will have a much harder time, in my experience.