Public Forum Over Sharbot Lake Housing Project

Jeff Green | Sep 20, 2023

Sonya Bolton, Manager of Community Planning for Frontenac County, said that she drafted the rest of her department to help for a community forum/workshop as part of a process that is being carried out by the township of Central Frontenac to answer a specific question.

What does the community want to see happen at the former Sharbot Lake Public School site?

The format of the meeting was straightforward. Sonya Bolton provided a short introduction, and then participants, who were seated at tables that had a large picture of the site under some tracing paper on them, were invited to work with the people at their own table to come up with a plan for the site.

At least one member of the county planning and economic development department was seated at each table as a resource. For almost an hour, participants kicked around ideas for the site, ranging from recreational to commercial and housing uses.

The site has been designated as a pilot site for the made in Frontenac County Communal Servicing project that has greatly increased the potential capacity of the site for both commercial and housing uses. Based on a carrying capacity study, the site could be capable of hosting up to 45 housing units if served by a municipally managed stand-alone water and sewer system.

Without communal serving, it would only have the capacity for as many as 10 but as few as 5 units on a well and septic system, which is what the rest of the properties in Sharbot Lake have in place.

As the meeting wound down, one representative from each table presented their findings to the entire group.

The results were similar in many ways, with notable differences. One table insisted that no buildings more than 3 stories high be built as part of any project, whereas another suggested that a 9-story apartment building could be constructed. A third said that the height of any building should be determined partly be where it is located on the site, which has a some higher and some lower spots. Integrated the new construction with the existing homes in the vicinity of the site was also a consideration.

Whether the housing that is developed on the site would be targeted at seniors, with market value or geared to income rent, at families, or both, was given a different take by the tables.

Just about all of the tables, particularly one which was dominated by Sharbot Lake Pickleballers, talked about maintaining the recreational use where the Pickleball Courts are currently located.

All of the plans were gathered at the end of the meeting.

Sonia Bolton said that a survey that has been up at the engagefrontenac.ca site for about a month, and is slated to close at the end of this week, has drawn a lot of interest.

“We have had 877 responses thus far,” she said.

As well, in August, Bolton and her colleague, community planner Dmitry Kurylovich, did a pop-up consultation at the Mike Dean's Local Grocer Store in the hamlet on a Friday at lunchtime, where they talked to a cross section of people, including a number of summer cottagers.

“Because of all this material, including the 877 survey responses, it will take me a bit longer to complete my report to Central Frontenac Council that I had originally planned, “said Bolton, “but that's ok.”

There are a few factors which have heightened public interest in the project.

The Sharbot Lake Public School site was purchased by Central Frontenac in late 2017.

It was the subject of some controversy at the time, because within a month of being purchased from the Limestone District School Board, in a $220,000 deal that included the former Hinchinbrooke School and site in Parham, the council of the day decided to demolish the building rather than re-purpose it for a new use. The demolition was delayed for several years before being completed in 2021 at a cost of $200,000.

The site also was a key component in a Community Revitalisation Project for Sharbot that Central Frontenac Township undertook in 2020 and 2021

Then, in the spring of 2022, the tennis court located on a small flat parcel on the otherwise hilly 0.8 (2 acre) site was taken up by a startup community group known as the Sharbot Lake Pickleball Club. Since then, the court has been greatly improved by the group using fundraised dollars become a hub of activity between the months of May and October, attracting well over 100 people on most days in the summer months.

The township has not invested in the ongoing upgrades but has approved the use and provided some maintenance support.

The Pickleball Club would like to seek grant support to put in a better court surface on the court, similar to what is in place in all of the South Frontenac courts, and are hoping that the township will designate the site as a Pickleball site as part of any future development.

A week before this week's public meeting in Sharbot Lake, Sonya Bolton met with 37 members of the Pickeball Club to talk about their hopes and aspirations.

Once Sonya Bolton's report is presented to them, Central Frontenac Council will have a number of options.

They could seek to develop the site themselves, and if they pursue Senior's Housing on the property, they will be able to use $300,000 in seed money that Frontenac County is holding for senior's housing projects in each township. They could seek a developer to participate in a public-private partnership with them through a request for proposal or some other process, or they could sell the property to a developer.

One new factor that may play a role in what eventually happens at the site is a new federal announcement that gst will be waived for construction of rental units.

“I'm told that this is a really big deal for developers “said Frontenac County Director of Planning and Economic Development Joe Gallivan.