County council accepts communal servicing business plan; townships left to decide

Jeff Green | Jul 27, 2022

While it is not a top of mind issue for most Frontenac County residents, its proponents believe that communal servicing will have a large the future of Frontenac County.

Currently unable to attract any kind of density due to the lack of municipal sewer and water systems, the ability to enable developers to put in small-scale modular water and sewage systems using modern technology, is seen as a game changer for the future of Frontenac County's small villages.

The proposed model for this kind of development was considered at a final public meeting last Wednesday (July 13) before going to a vote at Frontenac County Council this week.

The proposal was outlined by Joe Gallivan, Director of Planning and Economic Development, and Kelly Pender, Chief Administrative Officer, for an in-person and virtual audience that included staff and council members from the four Frontenac Townships.

Gallivan described how a municipally owned corporation will be set up to oversee and approve the installation of water and sewage systems, which can then be assumed by the corporation.

He said that the corporation will likely contract out the management of the systems to municipal utility corporations in adjacent urban centres such as Kingston or Perth.

“It has worked well for South Frontenac to have the Kingston Utilities Commission run the Sydenham Water Plant,” he said. “This could work in the same way.”

The scenario is similar to the way roads are assumed by municipalities under plans of subdivision. Developers who put in subdivisions pay for the roads and other infrastructure to be constructed to a standard specified by the local municipality, and the municipality eventually takes ownership and responsibility for maintenance on those roads.

The greatest benefit from communal water, according to Gallivan and Pender, will be to end a logjam that is holding back development in the Frontenac County's villages.

“When a developer comes to a township with a plan to put in a communal system, the township has a choice. They can say yes, and assume the liability should the developer go out of business and then the system fails, which is not good for the township. Or the municipality, can require surety from the developer. The developer has to pay for two communal systems, and that stops them from proceeding with the development.”

He said that communal servicing transfers that liability to the municipal services corporation.

Alan Revill, a member of Frontenac County Council from South Frontenac, asked about costs to the local municipality.

“It will cost each municipality $700,000 to set up the corporation, as I understand it, but what about seed money to establish a reserve fund. Will that follow, at some point?”

Kelly Pender said that the corporation will have “no legal ability to come back to the shareholders for more support. It is not like a municipal service run by a board, like the library service, that municipalities must find each year. Municipalities can voluntarily put money in, but can't be forced to do so.”

In preparing the final proposal that will come to council this week, County staff have been looking at two pilot projects, the former public school site inn Sharbot Lake, which they have developed a business plan for, and the proposed senior's housing project in Verona.

Communal Servicing would make it possible for both of those projects to proceed on a much larger scale, providing housing for hundreds of people instead of a couple of dozen, at most.

Cindy Deachman, Deputy Clerk and planning coordinator for Central Frontenac said “how do you know the developers are going to want to come here?”

Joe Gallivan responded: “In South Frontenac half of the township is in the commuter shed of the city.

We had a meeting with developers in 2018, and they said 'if you are telling us we can build these systems into our projects and you will take it over, it will be much easier for us to develop.”

If the communal servicing proposal is accepted by Frontenac County Council this week, each township will consider whether they want to buy in to the corporation, or stay out of it.

Pender and Gallivan did not say how many townships are needed to make the corporation a go. To date, Central Frontenac and Frontenac Islands township councils have been the most supportive of the idea, while South Frontenac has been more reluctant. North Frontenac Council has supported the project, but Mayor Higgins has expressed his misgivings about setting up a public utility, saying that there has not been enough exploration of an entirely private sector option for communal servicing.

The Sharbot Lake school site project, potential for substantial development in the newly expanded village of Marysville on Wolfe Islands, and the Verona Senior's project will all be factors considered by the local townships when the proposal comes to their table in early August should it get through Frontenac County Council this week.