More permanent residents could lead to Zoning Bylaw changes

Craig Bakay | Mar 14, 2018

A zoning change to allow for a four-season residence on Norcan Lake could have far-reaching ramifications as more and more rural residents are converting cottages to use as retirement residences.

The property rezoned at last Friday’s regular meeting of North Frontenac Council was a 11.3 hectare parcel with 184 metres of waterfront which had been zoned only for seasonal and open space.

But judging from the size of the gallery crowd at mandatory public meeting, there was a lot interest in the topic.

“If you want properties in that area to be zoned for permanent residences, you have to make a request in writing,” said Clerk/Planning advisor Tara Mieske. “The contract planner is looking at re-writing the zoning bylaw on that.”

“I see it as a blanket problem for the entire Township,” said Coun. Gerry Martin. “A lot of people are living here permanently now.”

“We should probably look at the entire subdivision,” said Mieske.

“Under the building code, when you go from seasonal to permanent, there are different standards,” said planner Megan Rueckwald.

“And some people only want three-season dwellings because it can affect insurance and building costs,” said Mieske.

“It’s pretty hard to differentiate whether people are just coming up in winter or living there,” said Mayor Ron Higgins. “But this is a perfect opportunity (revising the Zoning Bylaw) to make all the zonings permanent.”

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Drones can do many things ranging from GIS mapping to dropping a life preserver to someone who’s gone through the ice, Brian Leahey, dep. Chief of paramedic services for Renfrew County told Council.

“With attachments, it can be a surveillance unit, aerial sniffer, night vision,” he said. “It often means we can see what’s going on without having to send somebody out on the ice and with night vision, we can find victims of car crashes who’ve been thrown from the vehicle more readily.”

However, there is one big downside to the new technology — cost.

The unit Leahey brought to show Council cost in excess of $20,000 and prices just go up from there.

“It would probably mean they’d have to be bought at the County level because of cost,” said Coun. John Inglis.

And, Leahey conceded that there are those who feel aerial drones are an infringement on personal privacy but Dep. Mayor Fred Perry had a potential solution for that.

“My wife isn’t a big fan of drones,” Leahey said. “And they can be quite intrusive in the wrong hands.”

“Buy her a shotgun,” said Perry.

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Mayor Ron Higgins was in Sharbot Lake last week for a meeting on the possibility of making Hwy 7 four lanes from Peterborough to Carleton Place and was concerned about a couple of potential costs.

“We don’t want to be responsible for turning lanes at 41 and 509,” he said. “And 41-506-509 was mentioned as a potential detour while construction takes place and we can’t afford to upgrade those roads.”

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In Mayor Ron Higgins’ update from County Council, it was revealed that there are dollars available to expand Fairmount Home but he had another idea.

“Why not expand to a separate campus,” he said. “There is talk of the County sharing office space with Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority and if that happens, we should be pushing to have more seniors residences in the north — at least in Sharbot Lake.”

“I agree,” said Dep. Mayor Fred Perry. “We should have more spaces further away from Kingston.”