Destination Sharbot Lake presented to business group

Jan 15, 2020

The Sharbot Lake Business Group’s twice annual gatherings, winter and summer, are opportunities for groups of individuals and local business owners with an interest in developing the hamlet and the surrounding region, as an economic hub in Central Frontenac.

They are also social gatherings, with free food and coffee, and a cash bar, available for all who attend. At the winter gathering on Monday night, which was attended by 63, according to the group’s official chronicler, Ken Fisher, a delegation of department managers from the Frontenac County planning and development department was on hand.

The delegation included Megan Rueckwald - manager of community planning, Richard Allen, manager of economic development; and their boss, Joe Gallivan, director of planning and economic development.

In addition to county officials, senior managers from Central Frontenac, Mayor/Warden Frances Smith and most of the township council, were on hand.

After hearing updates from the business group leadership, Gallivan made a presentation that was the main event of the evening.

His presentation was based on a section of Draft 2 of the updated Central Frontenac Official Plan – Special Policy Area – Sharbot Lake.

“The goal of the section is to create a cohesive plan for future development in Sharbot Lake,” Gallivan said, quoting from the text.

After a brief trip through the history of Sharbot Lake as a frontier town/railway hub in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Gallivan talked about the current configuration of the hamlet, from its southern entranceway over a causeway that divides the two basins of Sharbot Lake, to the junction of Road 38 with Highway 7 at the north end.

In addition to the waterfront and business core sections of the hamlet, he said that attention needs to be paid to the Highway7/38 intersection.

Destination - Sharbot Lake, which is the heading for a 7- page section of the official plan, talks about some possible future developments in Sharbot Lake.

“A lot of people here take the entrance to Sharbot Lake from Road 38 for granted, but when you come around that curve and see water on both sides as you approach the causeway, it says everything about it being a village on the water. A gateway at that location would communicate to people that they are leaving the rural road and entering the village,” he said.

As examples, he showed slides of the entranceways to Richmond, Gravenhurst, and Gananoque. Gallivan also pointed to language in the Destination - Sharbot Lake section of the official plan that talks about the core of the village, the impact of improvements to Elizabeth Street that will take place in the coming year or so, and “the need to develop infrastructure necessary to sustain existing businesses and community services as well as new commercial development.”

The plan envisions the establishment of a formal trail hub in recognition of the junction of the K&P and east-west Trans Canada Trails and the Railway Heritage Park that has become, in the words of the plan, “a core public space in the village.”

Two other major changes, which might be coming to Sharbot Lake, are out of the hands of local business people and politicians, but they are included in the plan because they would have a major impact on the future of Sharbot Lake if they come about.

The first refers to the possibility that Highway 7 will be made into a 4 lane highway, which is a long range plan of the Ontario government, although there are no active plans to bring it about.

“It is the position of Council that the redesign of Highway 7 as a highway similar to other 400 series highways in Ontario would damage the future rural economy of this part of the Frontenac region,” according to the draft Official Plan.”

The alternative for Sharbot Lake, would be for the township promote a parkway development when talking to provincial officials. The parkway would potentially run between Sharbot Lake Provincial Park and Fall River Road. This section of the roadway would see a speed reduction to 60km/h, would be only two lanes, with bike and pedestrian lanes at its sides, and would have a light at the junction with Road 38.

“The MTO [Ministry of Transportation] does not care about rural economic development, they only care about getting people from point A to point B as quickly as possible,” Gallivan said, “but the current Minister of Municipal Affairs, Steve Clark, from a riding just next door, he gets it, so there is an opportunity to put the parkway idea to him, which is something your mayor and council can do.”

The other project that may be in the cards is the VIA Rail hi frequency rail line between Toronto and Ottawa, which includes a stop in Sharbot Lake in the most current project map.

Gallivan said that developing Hi-Frequency Rail service was included in the letter sent to the new Provincial Minister of Infrastructure from the Prime Minister, and added that “a year or so ago I would have given the rail project a 25% of happening, but now I would put it at over a 50% chance.”

The township has passed a motion supporting the concept of a new rail service stopping in Sharbot Lake. It is however, the subject of some controversy in Sharbot Lake, because if the new line follows the path of the former line, it would cut the narrow piece of land in the core section of the village, and curtail access to the beach, which is the feature that is identified in the Draft official plan as central component to the entire concept of Destination-Sharbot Lake.