Milton opened its rural area to additional residential units on January 26, 2026, with limits set by the Greenbelt and the Escarpment

What Council passed

On January 26, 2026, Milton Council adopted Official Plan Amendment 94 and passed two zoning by-laws that let owners of lots on private wells and septic systems add self-contained units to their properties. By-law 003-2026 adopted the official plan amendment (Town file LOPA-01/25). By-law 004-2026 amended the rural zoning by-law, 144-2003, and By-law 005-2026 amended the urban zoning by-law, 016-2014, for the small number of low-density urban lots that have no municipal water or sewer service. The minutes record both staff reports, DS-003-26 and DS-005-26, as approved.

The changes were Town-initiated. Council had allowed additional residential units, often called ARUs, on fully serviced urban lots on June 3, 2024, as the Planning Act requires. The Act does not require them on unserviced lots; staff's report says Council asked for rural rules after residents argued for them.

How many units, and where

Rural Milton is not treated as one area, because most of it lies inside the Niagara Escarpment Plan or the Greenbelt Plan and the Town's rules have to follow those provincial plans. Staff report DS-003-26 sets out four cases.

The rural rules apply in the Rural Estate Residential, Village Residential, Agricultural and Rural zones, and the zoning also sets setbacks, height, parking and emergency access. An additional unit cannot be severed from the lot of the main house. Staff's report notes the units are exempt from development charges and from parkland conveyance.

Why the lot-size rule changed

The draft shown at the public meeting on June 23, 2025 would have required 0.625 hectares for a lot with one additional unit and 0.875 hectares for two. Those figures, staff later wrote, assumed owners would install advanced septic systems that cut nitrate, and the Building Code only lets a municipality require a conventional system. The version Council passed drops any minimum for a unit inside or attached to the house and requires 1.5 hectares for one in a detached building, a size staff said allows for dilution from a conventional septic bed. An owner with a smaller lot can ask the Committee of Adjustment for a minor variance and may be asked for a hydrogeological study.

Staff also dropped a draft condition that a Greenbelt accessory building must have existed on July 1, 2017, after the Province advised that the Greenbelt Plan sets no such date.

Consultation

The Town held a virtual information session on May 29, 2025, with about 37 participants, and an in-person one on June 3, 2025, with 30. At the statutory public meetings on June 23, 2025, the minutes record that no member of the public came forward on either the rural or the urban item. Written comments came from residents, Halton Region and both school boards.

Where it stands now

The Town gave notice of the decisions on January 30, 2026. The official plan amendment was exempt from provincial approval, the last day to appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal was February 19, 2026, and both zoning by-laws were written to take effect when Amendment 94 did. Nothing read for this story records an appeal. As of November 9, 2026, the Town's Build an ARU page says the Official Plan and zoning by-law were updated in January 2026 to permit units in rural areas, and lists the rural cases above among eligible properties.

Being in an eligible area is not approval. A building permit is required, the Town says not every property can accommodate a unit, and a finished unit has to be registered with the Town under a three-year registration pilot that began in 2025.