It was a year ago when Brian Skillen came to Central Frontenac Council to fight for the right to keep his two miniature horses, Tommy and Teddy, on his Clarke Road property near Arden.

The horses are well known in the Arden/Tamworth/Tweed corridor through their appearances at public events, and their visits to seniors' homes.

However, they ran afoul of the township because Skillen's residential lot is under the 10 acre minimum for housing livestock, and a complaint, lodged by his neighbour, brought this to the attention of the township and its bylaw officer.

Skillen was ordered to move Tommy and Teddy at that time, but council relented and an accommodation was found. The Ministry of the Environment determined there was no impact of the horses on wells or groundwater, which was the neighbour's concern, and the township held the bylaw enforcement at bay as it considered fine tuning the bylaw.

Fine tuning the bylaw is not likely to take place soon, however, since the township is waiting for Frontenac County to finalize its Official Plan before starting to update its own, a process that will likely take another year or two.

Earlier this spring, a complaint was lodged against a family in Mountain Grove who were raising pigs at a property within the hamlet, bringing the issue of the 10 acre minimum lot size for livestock back before Council.

On June 9, then CAO Jim Zimmerman gave a report to council asking that the township either “adopt a consistent, fair and objective enforcement of the existing by-law, or instruct staff to not enforce the existing by-law under any circumstances ... “

Council chose to enforce the existing bylaw, which meant that not only did the Mountain Grove pigs need to be moved, but the Skillen horses, as well as four goats at a property outside of Mountain Grove, were also to be revisited.

According to Central Frontenac Clerk Cathy MacMunn, the situation with the pigs has been resolved, and a solution for the goats “is being worked on”.

As far as Timmy and Tommy are concerned however, the jig seems to be up.

“Here it is,” said Brian Skillen, as he produced a document signed by Ken Gilpin, the township's bylaw officer, ordering the horses off the property by July 20.

“I'm pretty fed up with the township,” he said. “Nothing has changed since last year when the Ministry of the Environment and the Health Unit and all the rest of them came here and said they weren't causing any problems, but now they want them gone.”

Unlike last year, Skillen is not planning to go before Council to ask for a reprieve.

“I'm not going back to them,” he said, pointing to a For Sale sign in front of his house. “I'm trying to sell the property anyway, not because of the township, but they don't help matters much, I can tell you that. All I want is for them to let me keep the horses here until I sell.”

Skillen said that he is concerned that if Tommy and Teddy are taken away they will not survive the ordeal.

“They need specific care because they are miniature horses,” he said. “If you put them on grass they wouldn't survive very long. One way or another I'll make sure they are cared for.”

Politicians from South Frontenac had been waiting for a year to find out if their ratepayers would be subsiding planning services for residents of the three other townships in Frontenac County.

At a Committee of the Whole meeting of Frontenac County Council last week (February 18) the representatives from South Frontenac were the only ones who opposed a plan whereby all municipally generated planning work done under contract between the county planning department and North and Central Frontenac and Frontenac Island township would be done for free.

The Frontenac County planning department provides service to the county, and, as of last year to local townships as well. It is funded through the corporate services budget of Frontenac County. Because it has the largest population, South Frontenac ratepayers pay 57.8% of that budget.

South Frontenac Township does not benefit from the free planning services because they have their own busy planning department already in place.

In a report to the Committee of the Whole, the County Manager of Planning, Joe Gallivan, outlined several options for payment for the services that are being provided to three of the four townships. The one that is in place, called the incremental cost model, calls for no charge for day-to-day planning work and land use policy work generated by the townships. However, all privately initiated applications (e.g., minor variance, severance, rezoning) for which the applicants are charged a fee by the townships, will result in a charge from the county.

Councilor John McDougall from South Frontenac said that he favoured a “full cost recovery model, which is the fairest way to do this. But in place of that we are willing to accept some sort of flat fee arrangement. South Frontenac pays for our own department and we pay into the county department as well, I must point out,” he said.

Current Warden and Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle said, “The planners are already being paid. Any money that is raised from privately initiated planning applications will help cover those salaries, and South Frontenac gets the most benefit from that. It really is a win-win.”

South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal did not see Doyle's logic.

“I hate to say this but if we don't have enough work for the people we have then we might consider looking at staffing levels to save money. To me, if any service is going to be offered by the county to one or more townships it should be paid for. Otherwise it's not fair to taxpayers in the townships who do not use the service,” he said.

Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith said that when the county offered to do the planning for Central Frontenac, it was on the basis that the township would be getting “free service and only private applications would be billed. If that changes then we will have to look at our options again.”

When it came to a vote, all six council members from the three townships who stand to benefit from the policy supported it, and the two from South Frontenac voted against it.

One thing that North, South and Central Frontenac all have in common is lakes. There are large and small lakes everywhere and in between there are more creeks and swamps than patches of land.

Now those waterways are binding the townships in opposition to the Province of Ontario. The three townships, and Frontenac County itself, all are or soon will be at loggerheads with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs over two provisions in their respective Official Plans.

Official Plans are deathly dry documents but they do provide the basis for all the local rules that anyone who wants to do something as simple as build a shed or expand their front deck is obliged to adhere to. Since just about all the economic development in Frontenac County is based on people living in houses on water or rural lots and making their lives here, the rules that govern what can be built where are essential.

North and Central Frontenac ran afoul of the ministry a few years ago when they refused to pass Official Plans that prohibited future development on private lanes. The reason they refused was that it would mean that the vast potential of people migrating to the townships and falling in love with the land and the rural lifestyle, would be cut back to almost nothing. Only developers with deep pockets who are able to use urban planning tools such as Plans of Subdivision would be able to do business in Frontenac County.

While that model works in a small part of the county at the southern edge, i.e. within a 15-minute drive of the City of Kingston, most of South and all of Central and North Frontenac would be left with little chance of attracting new residents.

A second issue came to light last week, and this one affects South Frontenac first but will undoubtedly be applied to the rest of the county and beyond if the ministry has its way. All development within 120 metres of a body of water is to be restricted. That is what the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is recommending for the new South Frontenac Official Plan. In order to build within 120 metres of a water body a bunch of studies would need to be done, and zoning and Official Plan amendments would need to be secured. All of these add costs and time, so instead of promoting ourselves as a place to come and build a life in a place of natural beauty within driving distance of major cities, we will be putting up hurdles designed by a government that has no idea what this county is all about.

To put the 120 metre setback into perspective, residents of Verona, Sydenham, Ompah, and certainly Sharbot Lake would find it very difficult not only to build new houses, but even to extend their front deck 10 feet.

We have chronicled some of the disputes between the planning departments of Frontenac County and South Frontenac in recent months, but it just makes sense for all the collective resources within Frontenac County to be mustered together to make a strong case to be brought to the Ontario Municipal Board, which is where this dispute with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs is inevitably headed.

The province has a lot of money - and some of that money is our money, by the way - to fight us on this. We need to stick together to fight back.   

As the term wound down last week at Frontenac County, the representatives from South Frontenac Council chose not to bring their concerns to the table - at least during open session - about a report from the county planning department on the work they did in 2014 as a contract planner for three of the four Frontenac townships.

“All I can say is this does not reflect what John McDougall and I were told was going to happen,” said a frustrated South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison.

At the beginning of the year, North and Central Frontenac entered into a contract with Frontenac County for planning services, which Frontenac Islands had already done two years ago.

At the time, South Frontenac Mayor Gary Davison expressed the concern that his ratepayers not be on the hook for providing planning services for the other townships.

South Frontenac has its own planning department, and South Frontenac ratepayers also pay 60% of Frontenac County taxation.

At the time it was agreed that tracking software would be employed to determine what the two county planners were working on at all times, and armed with that data a user pay model for their time would be worked out.

In February, Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle said “we would be happy to pay the full cost of the service. It will be a win-win for South Frontenac ratepayers.”

However, the report that was presented to Frontenac County Council last week, (November 19) used a different kind of model.

In the preamble to the report, the County Planning manager Joe Gallivan wrote: “The County has been using a ‘community benefit model’ in providing planning services to the townships. This model is used by other County planning departments in Eastern Ontario. It recognizes that a regional government has the ability to overcome disparities based on geography and/or tax base and tax assessment in order to provide equitable services. This is particularly relevant to Frontenac County, which has a large physical area with limited fiscal and human resources in local government.”

He compared the billing model with the one used by health units and conservation authorities, in which more populated areas subsidise the costs for more rural locations.

In line with this, the county has been providing service free of charge to North and Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands for day-to-day planning work and land use policy work, and charging for work that is generated by privately initiated applications, which the townships charge back to the private applicants.

According to the report, 57% of the department's time was spent on county-related planning work, which includes preparing the county Official Plan, developing policy and doing approvals for subdivisions, which is a county responsibility.

The remaining 43% of the department's time was spent on work for the three contract townships. A little more than half of that work (23% of the total) was for work generated by the townships themselves, which was not charged back, and the rest (19% of the total) was spent on privately generated planning applications.

However, the revenue generated for the county was minimal, only $3,640, significantly less than the $12,000 that was projected.

The salary line in the county planning budget for 2014 is over $200,000.

Lindsay Mills said on Tuesday that he is ready to recommend that South Frontenac politicians vote in favour of approving the Frontenac County Official Plan.

Mills, who is the head of the South Frontenac Planning department, attended what he described as an “excellent” meeting between Frontenac township chief administrators, planning departments, county staff and senior officials from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing on Thursday, October 23.

However, on Monday of this week he added that he needed to see the proposed changes to the plan that resulted from the meeting.

When contacted again on Tuesday, after seeing the changes, he said that most of the “drop dead requirements for changes” that his department had identified had been made and he thinks South Frontenac can live with the document.

“I still have problems with it. I think it is too detailed, too prescriptive, and gets into things that might lead to difficulties down the road, but as they say it is a 'living document' and we can make changes if parts of it turn out to be unworkable,” he said.

He added that he had not been alone in expressing concerns and asking for changes to the document at the meeting that was held last week.

“Jenny Duhamel from North Frontenac and Cathy MacMunn from Central Frontenac both raised important points that had to be addressed. This was not only a South Frontenac issue,” he said.

Approving the draft document and sending it to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs had been expected at the regular monthly meeting of Frontenac County Council on October 15, but when the representatives from South Frontenac spoke against it, a deferral was proposed in order for the October 23 meeting to be organized in an effort to achieve a more solid consensus among members of Frontenac County Council.

That might prove relevant if, as is expected, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs seeks to make changes to the document that are not acceptable to Frontenac County.

“I can't comment on the issues between Frontenac County and the provincial government,” said Mills, “that's really for them to deal with. I can only comment on the document itself and its impact on development in South Frontenac. As it was before, I was worried that it might have stopped us in our tracks, and I am less worried now.”

Mills added that while he expects that the South Frontenac representatives, outgoing Mayor Gary Davison and Councilor John McDougall, will vote in favour of the document, he expects that Mayor Davison “will have some interesting things to say at the meeting.”

After 18 months of work, and three formal drafts, the Frontenac County Official Plan was set for approval at a meeting of Frontenac County Council last Wednesday (October 15).

However the prospect of a split vote on the plan has forced a delay. The representatives on the council from South Frontenac, Mayor Gary Davison and Councilor John McDougall, both indicated they remain opposed to some of the wording in the plan, and since South Frontenac is where most of the development that is governed by the plan will be taking place, a last-ditch bargaining session of sorts has been set for this week.

“Our concern in South Frontenac is that we have a difference of opinion with the county that may not be as large as it seems. We might solve those if we delay this and hold one more meeting,” said John McDougall.

The meeting will be attended by the chief administrative officers of all the townships and the county, a representative from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, as well as county planner Joe Gallivan and South Frontenac planner Lindsay Mills. The goal of the meeting will be to bridge the gap between Joe Gallivan's third version of the plan, and Lindsay Mills' desire for a plan that preserves the independence of his own office. Mills has described the county plan as “too prescriptive and amounting to a power grab by the county.”

One of the issues that is of concern to South Frontenac is the use of the word “shall” in the plan.

Mayor Davison made reference to this in his comments at county council meeting last week, in reference to prescribed setbacks between new construction and the shoreline of lakes and rivers.

“The county plan restricts all new construction to 30 metres from the shoreline,” said Davison. “In South Frontenac we were one of the first jurisdictions to bring in the 30 metre setback over 10 years ago, but we built in some leeway, and this allows our Committee of Adjustment to make allowances for circumstances. If the County plan is approved as it is written now, we won't be able to do that.”

For his part Joe Gallivan said that the county plan will not affect South Frontenac's ability to make allowances in applying the setback rule.

“The plan does not interfere with any municipality's ability to make changes. It will be business as usual,” he said.

As far as the extra meeting, Joe Gallivan asked that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs be invited to send a representative.

“If that meeting is going forward it is essential that the province be there. If the ministry is there they will tell staff from all the townships which sections of the plan cannot be changed,” Gallivan said.

Before leaving the topic, interim county warden Dennis Doyle asked if the County Chief Administrative Officer, Kelly Pender, had anything to say about the matter.

“If I remember correctly, you have a background in planning, don't you, Kelly,” Doyle said.

“I sometimes describe myself as a recovering planner,” Pender said, before delivering a stern warning. “I certainly don't have a problem having a further meeting, but I want be clear about one thing. If this council recommends changes to the Official Plan that do not reflect the Provincial Policy Statement, which underpins all planning in Ontario, county staff will voice opposition to those changes. They would simply not fly with the province. The ministry will be clear on that point, and I agree they need to be at the meeting as well.”

The province has set a target date of March 31 for the adoption of County Official Plans throughout the Province.

As it stands, the third draft of the Frontenac County Plan does not conform to a number of demands that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs has made.

Joe Gallivan has said that he hopes to convince the ministry that the current version of the plan is based on a sound interpretation of the Provincial Policy Statement. If he cannot, the matter could well end up at a hearing before the Ontario Municipal Board, which would provide a final determination of whether the county's or ministry's interpretation of the Provincial Policy Statement is more accurate.

Public Meeting over Condo Application

Over 60 people attended a lengthy public meeting to review an application for a plan of condominium development on the northeast shore of Loughborough Lake. One primary concern was the short two-week notice residents had in which to study the related documents and prepare a response: several asked for a second public meeting.

Mat Rennie pointed out that at least three of the lots had wetland as their waterfront, asking, “Won’t these people expect to get access to the lake from their property, through these wetlands that are supposed to be protected?”

Ed Koen said the monitoring test on his well was done in April, at a time when the well was not connected to his cottage, yet the report referred to fluctuations due to personal consumption: “Why weren’t these tests done in midsummer, when the water levels are at their lowest?” Another speaker begged the Township to stick to their stated goals and Official Plan: “There seems to be a lot of bending and variances to accommodate this development.”

Mike Keene, planner for the developer, corrected some issues: ie, the developer will be fully responsible for any alterations to Township roads which are needed to accommodate entrance requirements. He said he would need only two weeks to prepare responses to all other concerns raised in the meeting.

In the end, the present Council decided to defer any decision for three months so the incoming Council could deal with it, and recommended a second public meeting so all the residents’ concerns could be fully addressed.

Compensation Refused

Gail Dickenson, co-owner of Hillside Cafe came a second time to Council requesting compensation for loss of more than $12,000 revenue over the summer months due to construction on Rutledge Road. Council refused on the advice of their lawyer, who said that the Municipal Act forbids granting this form of assistance to commercial enterprise. The chief reason seemed to be fear of setting a precedent for both future and past projects.

Naish Resigns

Mayor Davison expressed regret over the resignation of Councillor Naish, Storrington district. Naish notified Council that he had moved outside the Township, so was no longer eligible to sit on Council. He will not be replaced, due to the short time left before elections.

Long Swamp Bridge

The Long Swamp Bridge has been deemed safe enough to be seasonally reopened for the next two years with a 5-Tonne single load limit. Segsworth said a full assessment is planned, to fully evaluate options for rehabilitation, replacement of removal of the bridge.

Reduced Speed Limits

On the recommendation of the roads department and the Public Services Committee, Council approved a by-law establishing speed restrictions on several roads in the Eastern part of the Township.

Museum Support

Council gave their approval to the establishment of the “Township of South Frontenac Old Stone School Museum” in Hartington, so the Historical Society can pursue further funding opportunities and partnerships. This approval is subject to being successful with the accessibility grant application.

Bubba Bowl this Thursday, Oct 9th.

Entry to The Point by foot traffic only.  

A dispute between Frontenac County Planner Joe Gallivan and South Frontenac Planner Lindsay Mills was played out once again on Monday night (September 22) at the Verona Lions Hall.
The occasion was the official public meeting on the third, and presumably final, draft of the Frontenac County Official Plan (OP), which is slated for a final vote by Frontenac County Council on October 15.
The issues raised by Mills, and supported by members of South Frontenac Council and Mayor Gary Davison, centre on specific wording in some of the clauses in the document.
Once passed, and approved by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the County OP will be the background document to which all of the local township plans will need to conform.
This represents a change from current practice, wherein the local OPs are approved directly by the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs, an arrangement that has been frustrating to many local councils, because it
leads to delays, and the ministry is seen as being unyielding and too intent on imposing urban planning reality onto rural Ontario.
The reason this is such an issue for the county, the townships and residents, is that the County and township OPs are fundamental documents that ultimately determine the kinds of residential and commercial development
that will be permitted, in which locations, and under what conditions.
At the meeting in Verona, there were environmentalists, developers, and homeowners in attendance. Almost 100 people were there, and not because of the entertainment value of planning talk, but because of the ultimate implications for the future of Frontenac County.
Lindsay Mills’ concerns with the third draft are the same as they were with both of the previous drafts. “The document is too detailed and intrudes into local planning responsibilities in many areas,” Mills wrote.
A prime example of this is the statement in the document that waterfront development be subject to a 30 metre setback from the shoreline.
This is a concept that has been entrenched in the South Frontenac Plan since 2003, so there would seem to be no problem. However, Mills said that in the South Frontenac plan the setback is a norm; it can be altered with the permission of the township’s committee of adjustment.
“By making it a requirement in the County OP, there will be no more leeway for circumstances where the setback is too restrictive,” Mills said.
He also said that in some cases the wording in the document is vague and could ultimately be open to much interpretation.
If Joe Gallivan only had to work out his differences with Lindsay Mills and South Frontenac Council, he might be able to. However when the plan was sent to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs for comment, the ministry suggested a number of changes. Some of them are easy enough to accommodate, but others would make the county plan more prescriptive than it already is.
This puts Gallivan, and the county, into a difficult position. South Frontenac will oppose the plan unless Gallivan pulls back the detailed, prescriptive language in the plan, and the ministry will not approve it if he
does not add more restrictions. This reality was noted by Lindsay Mills in his comments, but that did not convince him to alter his demands.
Through it all, Joe Gallivan remains optimistic about prospects for the document to be approved by the County in October and for the ministry to look favourably on it in the end. He said that if the ministry does not yield in the end, the county can appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board, and he said he is confident the county’s arguments will stand up.
The public meeting leaves a number of questions unanswered. Given everything that has happened, it is unlikely that the mayor of South Frontenac will support the County OP on October 15. The County may approve it anyway because there are likely enough councilors who will support it for it to pass. The ministry, in spite of Joe Gallivan’s optimism, will likely demand further changes, which will lead to an OMB hearing.
That is when the opposition from South Frontenac will become a real problem for Frontenac County. The County needs to present a united front to the OMB in order to win an appeal. The trouble is, there is no sense that an accommodation between Frontenac County and South Frontenac is any closer now than it was after the earlier drafts of the OP were tabled.