North Frontenac Council - Nov 14/11

Jeff Green | Nov 17, 2011

Campground owners call NF Council 'anti-business' 

Rob Gentile, a consultant and part owner of Bon Echo Campground, made a submission to North Frontenac Council on behalf of a group of 11 campground owners in North Frontenac.

He read out a shortened version of a longer submission he had sent to council, in which he talked about a number of concerns the campground owners have with existing and proposed restrictions on campgrounds in the township's Official Plan.

He said that for a variety of reasons, the number of campgrounds has dropped from 24 to 16 over the past 20 years. He also talked about some of the grievances that private campground owners have faced in the past in dealing with the township. He zeroed in on some of the actions that staff have taken and on the work of the township lawyers, Cunningham and Swan, and Glenn Tunnock, the township's planning consultant.

Gentile made reference to two developments from recent years, those at Woodcrest and Frontenac Shores resorts. He said that not only the developers of those projects, but other professional planners as well, have raised questions about the work of Glenn Tunnock.

“Other professional planners have been consulted with respect to the Frontenac Shores and Woodcrest developments. These experts confirmed our suspicions that what they were put through at the hands of Tunnock Consulting was both unnecessary and punitive. Such ordeals may allow the official planner to increase its billing hours, but serves to discourage others from visiting here,” Gentile said.

When asked later to identify the professional planners who had been consulted, Gentile would not do so, saying they did not want to go on the record with any comments about Tunnock's work.

Gentile went on to say that “many believe the township has been unduly influenced by its official planner and attorneys.”

In concluding his remarks, Gentile said that he does not mean his remarks to be “an attack on Council or its staff.” He then said: “We've talked about what we perceive to be an anti-business environment. Maybe our perception is wrong. We'd love to be shown otherwise. This is your chance. But in the absence of such evidence, we tend to believe the overwhelming common experiences business owners have had with the township.”

After Gentile had finished, Mayor Bud Clayton said, “As members of Council we are sworn to uphold the laws of Ontario. Anything that has been done in the past has been done under our zoning bylaw. That bylaw has been reviewed and there were several public meetings held for comment, and none of the campground owners came to any of those meetings. The bylaw is now being submitted for provincial approval. You are coming here not at the 11th hour but at the 11th hour and 59 minutes.”

After reading some of the specific concerns from Mr. Gentile before the Council meeting, township staff had prepared a resolution for Council to consider, but that resolution has not yet been vetted by the township's lawyer.

The resolution deals with two specific issues that concerned a number of campground owners. One had to do with the status of existing trailer sites, which are considered legal because they were in place before rules restricting development to 30 metres from the water had been established.

Currently, if a trailer is moved off one of those sites, no new trailer can replace it, but staff proposed that new trailers be allowed on existing trailer sites.

The second issue concerns the fact that a number of campgrounds contain buildings and hydro infrastructure on lands that are technically owned by the township because they are part of shoreline road allowances. Staff proposed a mechanism to transfer those road allowances to the campground owners.

After the meeting Robert Gentile said the campground owners were happy with the resolution that Council passed.

“I only hope that it gets by the township's lawyer,” he said.

Editor's Note: We contacted Glenn Tunnock to get his reaction to Robert Gentile's remarks. Tunnock said that his philosophy “has always been to see if there is a way for people to achieve their dreams, but I also have professional obligations to abide by. Perhaps this is a case of people blaming the messenger.”

Youth programming – Don Amos and Mary Beth Scott from Northern Frontenac Community Services (NFCS) made a short presentation to council outlining the services the agency provides to youth in North Frontenac.

An after school program at Clarendon Central is attended by over 80% of the grade 4-8 students in the school; movie and event nights have been held in the township and the agency provides transportation for events outside of North Frontenac. As well, a Recreation Guide is produced and delivered to all North Frontenac residents. Amos said that NFCS will be providing Aboriginal programming in the township this year thanks to a grant from the United Church. The agency received $5,500 from North Frontenac Council to provide youth programming.

“Our goal is to keep them active and living in the community,” Amos said.

Young firefighters - In dealing with membership requests from the fire department for two 16-year-olds, members of council expressed a concern about the prospect of under-aged people dealing with dangerous and traumatic situations.

“It see nothing wrong with that,” said Councilor Lonnie Watkins, “the young members only do training, cleaning trucks, rolling out hoses, and that sort of thing. They don't even get their bunker gear for at least a year. How are they going to learn if they can't even join the department?”

Council accepted the 16-year-old members into the department, but said they cannot “attend any incident” until they turn 19.