Central Frontenac Council – Dec. 13

Jeff Green | Dec 15, 2011

In their final meeting of 2011, Central Frontenac Council received a lot of information about planning matters, roads and waste management issues, and learned that they will be deep into budget deliberations in early January of 2012.

Kennebec Lake subdivision – In a first for the township, planning consultant Glenn Tunnock outlined how McIntosh Perry, the developer that is planning to build a 24-lot subdivision with 16 waterfront lots as well as 8 back lots on Kennebec Lake, has been working collaboratively not only with the township and conservation authority, but with the Kennebec Lake Association as well.

Greg Newman from McIntosh Perry outlined the proposal, which is wending its way through the plan of subdivision, zoning bylaw amendment, and severance processes in Central Frontenac and Frontenac County.

The current plan calls for the new subdivision to be accessed off Henderson Road just south of the Kennebec Lake bridge. The access road will be built to township standards and will become a township road,

One unusual departure of the project is that McIntosh Perry is planning to give most of the land that is not being used for building lots to the township for use as parkland. The land that will be offered totals over 60% of the Baker Valley property that McIntosh Perry is developing.

In the earlier planning stages, a common waterfront area was going to be set aside for use by the 8 non-waterfront lot owners, but that idea has been shelved.

Garrison Shores – Township Planning Co-ordinator Cathy MacMunn said that the long, long, awaited Garrison Shores condominium agreement is on the agenda for approval at Frontenac County Council this week.

(Note – the Frontenac County meeting took place on Wednesday morning, December 14, after this edition of the Frontenac News had gone to press. By the time you are reading this, residents of Garrison Shores should have deeds to their properties after waiting almost 30 years.)

Public Works – For those who think that township snow plows have been a rare sight on gravel roads, Public Works Manager Mike Richardson explained why. “The gravel roads are still not frozen,” Richardson said, “which causes us some difficulty in clearing the roads without unintentionally scraping some gravel off. We try not to plow the gravel roads at this time of year if the snow is not very deep.”

Hinchinbrooke garage repairs – the Ministry of Labour has taken an interest in the state of the Hinchinbrooke garage, which has forced the township to take action. Work has been done to repair a leaking roof and window. Also, holes have been made in the back wall by some of the township’s larger plows. Richardson reported that rather than just repairing the walls, a wood frame extension is being built at minimal cost and the walls will be repaired after that so that no more holes will be punched through.

“Why are the drivers allowed to drive through the end of the garage?” asked Councilor Bill Snyder.

“It’s not that drivers are allowed to drive through the garage,” said Richardson, who then paused, and said, “I don’t have an answer for that.

Mayor Gutowski intervened.

“Those holes have come about over time, some of it several years ago, before Mike Richardson came to the township. Basically the garage hasn’t gotten bigger, but our vehicles have,” she said.

Mike Richardson said he is trying to spend as little money as possible on the garage while still complying with Ministry of Labour orders because he will be making a proposal to Council during the budget debate for a plan that will involve mothballing the Hinchinbrooke garage and moving all the equipment to another location.

Bridge plan – Richardson presented a 5-year capital bridge plan that calls for a $350,000 bridge repair budget each year. Included in 2012 is the replacement of the Johnston Road bridge, and a new culvert on the Fall River Road.

Waste not want not – Waste Management Supervisor Kyle Labbett brought several proposals to council from the waste management committee

In the first, the committee requested that brush and lumber for burning be accepted only at the Hinchinbooke transfer station.

The committee also wants to limit the time frame during which residents can take advantage of their annual free load. The free dump will be available for two weeks (and 3 weekends) in the spring and fall. The spring dates are between the weekend before the May 24th weekend, until the weekend after the May 24th weekend, and the fall dates are from the weekend before Labour Day until the weekend after Labour Day.

The waste management committee also looked once again at the possibility of a transfer station at the former Chippego Lake dump site in the far southwest of the township, far from any other waste site, in response to a petition from area residents.

Once again they found the costs were too high and they denied the request.

Finally, Kyle Labbett reported that new materials will be able to be recycled. Tetrapacks, juice boxes and milk cartons can all be recycled with other paper products. Paper coffee cups can also be recycled in the paper stream, while the lids must go in the bin for plastic and tin.

Central Frontenac is also partnering with North Frontenac in the purchase of Blue Boxes, which will be sold to residents for a nominal fee. Dry cell batteries will also be recycled in the township, in bins that will be located at commercial outlets in various locations.

Construction details – Permits for a shade under $8 million in construction have been taken out this year, about half a million more than 2010. In all, 17 new residential units are under construction, as compared to 21 at this time last year (the 2010 total included the five-unit not-for-profit seniors’ housing project, which counted as five new units.)

County planning services pitch to CF

By Julie Druker

The county Manager Of Sustainability Planning, Joe Gallivan, appeared before council extolling the benefits of using his services as an in-house county planner instead of the private contractor, Tunnock Consulting, whom the township uses now.

Gallivan proposed a cost recovery approach for the processing of all privately initiated applications. Planning application reports would be charged back to the applicant on an hourly basis with no charges for pre-consultation or general planning inquiries for either the township staff or the public. The proposed fees for all privately initiated services would be $55 an hour for the manager of sustainability planning, $30 for the community planner, and no charge for the GIS specialist.

There would be no fees associated with the processing of a municipally initiated planning application.

“Based on our research the costs would be roughly half the cost of what private consultants charge, bringing a cost savings not to just developers but also to the average citizen,” Gallivan said.

He listed the benefits of the proposed planning changes as follows: 1) unlike services provided by external consultants, no profit is built into the planning fees; 2) services would be exclusive to Frontenac County planning issues and therefore townships could focus on local and cross-boundary solutions; 3) with the county's new GIS system in place, all mapping needs could be done in house, saving further costs and time; 4) land use planning would become aligned with economic development planning; and 5) lower costs would encourage additional economic development in the area.

Following the presentation, Councilor Heather Fox asked if, given Gallivan’s present work load, another planner would need to be hired.

“Based on the volume over the last few years and quite frankly it’s not a lot of volume for three townships, it would be 500-650 hours per year for the regular day-to-day work and not including any other large projects. We could handle that without hiring another planner,” Gallivan said.

Local resident Opposed to proposed Property Standards By-Law

Lynn Shwadchuk of Sharbot Lake expressed her opposition to the township’s plan to draft a property standards by- law.

“What people forget is that this will always be a claim-based by-law and whatever is in it will become ammunition for neighbours to go after each other for infractions, “she said. “My position here is to suggest that we instead make the Safe Properties by-law a little more specific so that it’s not just a matter of opinion.” She stated how the Bancroft by-law being looked at by council as an example is overkill.

“Why spend money and time on developing a document that would really would be very difficult and likely expensive to enforce? Shouldn't we just encourage people to be friendly and help each other out?” she asked

Two tentative dates have been scheduled for public meetings to discuss the issue with members of council. They are January 18 in Arden and January 25 in Sharbot Lake.