| Aug 25, 2011


As a Community Improvement Plan (CIP) is about to start up in Verona, Frontenac County Council heard last week that Sharbot Lake is next in line for a bit of a boost to its economic viability.

Community Improvement Plans allow for shared investments between residential and commercial property owners and municipal councils. They have been used to give facelifts to main streets in Kingston and Brockville, and a pilot project for Frontenac County in Verona is at the point of being implemented by South Frontenac Township.

At a meeting of Frontenac County Council last week (August 17) a staff report by community planner Peter Young recommended supporting a plan for Sharbot Lake, subject to the support of Central Frontenac Council.

South Frontenac Council has allocated $10,000 this year for the Verona CIP, and Frontenac County Council has also allocated $70,000, creating a pool of money to be tapped into.

Among the incentives that have been approved for Verona are a facade improvement plan for commercial and residential properties along Main Street within the hamlet area, grants for accessibility improvements, and a separate fund for general commercial improvements. All grants are based on a 50% commitment from the applicant and are capped at $2,500.

Interest-free loans of up to $7,500 are also available for eligible projects, and in some cases municipal fees to a value of $2,000 can be waived.

The Verona plan also includes some initiative by the township in the way of road work and sidewalk initiatives and a number of potential community initiatives may also arise out of the public meetings that took place as the plan was being developed.

But before any decisions are made about what kinds of incentives will be put in place for Sharbot Lake, a number of steps need to be taken.

“Before we do anything further, we will be talking to Central Frontenac Council to see if they are interested,” said County Manager for Economic Development, Anne Marie Young, “We learned our lesson the last time around.”

Earlier this year, the county was chastised by South Frontenac Council for scheduling public meetings in Verona before the township were approached.

In addition to a financial commitment, Central Frontenac will need to amend their Official Plan to permit Community Improvement Plans in the township.

Once the Official Plan amendment is initiated, assuming Central Frontenac Council agrees, public meetings will be held to determine not only the scope of the plan, but geographic boundaries where it will be implemented.

The fact that Sharbot Lake has at least two separate pockets of commercial activity that are separated by residential areas, a function of the hamlet being located in a narrow band between the two basins of Sharbot Lake, was identified as a challenge by Fo-Tenn Consulting, a consulting company that evaluated all of the hamlets in Frontenac County in terms of their potential as CIP host communities.

However, noting that Sharbot Lake offers the best ratio of commercial properties to residential anywhere in the county, and is the third most populated hamlet in the county (behind Verona and Sydenham) Fo-Tenn identified Sharbot Lake as a community that would derive benefits from the program.

Marysville, on Wolfe Island, was also identified by Fo-Tenn as a likely site, and Frontenac Islands Mayor Dennis Doyle asked why Marysville had not been considered for the second project by the County.

“I thought we were going to consider Marysville and Sharbot Lake,” he said.

County Chief Administrative Officer Liz Savill replied that Marysville is slated to be the next in line after Sharbot Lake.

“On behalf of Central Frontenac I would say, yes, you definitely need to be speaking to our council about this as soon as possible,” said county councilor and mayor of Central Frontenac, Janet Gutowski. “The timing for Sharbot Lake may be very good with the redevelopment of the school coming up, the potential that comes with the existing public school site being vacated, the interest in the railway multi-use centre, and the engineering around the redevelopment of Elizabeth Street. There are things within the community that are about to change so the timing for a CIP may be right.”

Once Central Frontenac Council signs on to the project county staff will be setting up community meetings, probably later this fall. The cost of developing the Sharbot Lake plan will be lower than it was for Verona, because instead if using outside consultants to run meetings and write up the plan, those jobs will done by county staff.

 

 

 

 

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