Warwick is considering changing the zoning for the Watford Medical Clinic.

Councillor Wayne Morris brought the issue to council after talking to the doctors at the clinic. “They’re getting swamped with property tax,” Morris told council.

Ken Melanson, Lambton’s manager of planning services, says the clinic is in a residential zone but it is an exception to the zoning. “It is a commercial building for all intents and purposes which was allowed to occur in a residential area,” he says.

Morris wondered if changing the clinic’s zoning might solve some of the tax issues. Institutions do not pay property tax. 

“If we could eliminate the tax by putting it as institutional, from what I understand, their financial problems would be over,” he says.

Melanson says clinic isn’t included in the definition of Institutional Zoning. And he says zoning has a purpose, preventing “creeping into a residential neighbourhood to avoid and bringing all the associated implications…like traffic and noise.”

Council asked staff to investigate with the doctors at the clinic before taking any action. 

Mayor Todd Case noted the building is owned by a non-profit corporation however it had not asked for a zoning change yet.