Angela Sproule | Mar 13, 2019


Hello, friends and neighbours in Central Frontenac and South Frontenac Townships.  We hear you are currently going through an Official Plan (OP) update.  Good luck with this and some words of caution:

Get involved!  You may think the update will not impact your property if you haven’t had any issues or been notified specifically regarding any major amendments.  Wrong!

Attend all public meetings, including the final meeting.  The OP document is updated continuously and you never know when or what changes might have been made.

Specifically regarding Areas of Natural and Scientific Interest (ANSI), we see your OP document only lists provincially significant ANSIs.  Check the Map carefully because here in North Frontenac, it turns out the OP document only listed Provincially significant ANSIs, BUT the map then included others.

It also turns out the restrictions specified by the County and Township for Private Property within the other ANSIs significantly exceed the minimum level required by the Province.  This is a ‘made in Frontenac’ solution?

In North Frontenac, where 64% of the land is Crown Land, the County and Township found it necessary to include an additional 2500 acres (+) of private land within ANSIs?

And errors were made, where ANSIs were improperly classified by MNRF. 

Development and site alteration are not permitted within or adjacent to an ANSI without an Environmental Impact Assessment.  An earlier draft zoning by-law permitted Forestry, but this has since been removed.  It isn’t clear whether you can even cut firewood on your own property now.

Also be aware the ANSIs are just the first step.  The protectionist approach to planning also includes ‘wildlife linkages’ that will further impact private property.

If you want additional details regarding your looming OP Environmental and ANSI provisions, just take a look at the County of Frontenac Official Plan 2016 – Section 7.1 and Appendix 1A.  Good luck and I hope you avoid the significant issues that we now face in NF!

Angela Sproule on behalf of concerned private property owners

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