Craig Bakay | Aug 19, 2020


In a 5-2 vote against approval, North Frontenac Township Council won’t be giving its recommendation to Frontenac County for a proposed 23-unit vacant land condominium project on Ardoch Lake. The decision came at Council’s regular meeting online Friday.

Mayor Ron Higgins and Coun. Fred Fowler voted for approval while Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin, Coun. John Inglis, Fred Perry, Vern Hermer and Wayne Good voted against. Council’s decision will be forwarded to the County Planning Advisory Committee, which will make a recommendation one way or the other to Frontenac County Council, which is the governing body that will make the final decision on the project.

This project has been in the works since 2014 and was originally slated for 28 waterfront units and 17 inland units. It was recently revised to 17 waterfront units and six inland which was presented to Council July 17. The plan also includes two roads, a community block and communal dock and three open space/wetland blocks.

At issue appears to be the amount of waterfront per unit for 10 of the 17 waterfront units.

Planner Megan Reuckwald told Council that while these 11 units had water frontages ranging from 61.60 meters to 73.10 meters, the principle of “lot averaging” applies. The entirety of the subject lands is about 228 acres with 1.8 kilometers .

If the lots were to be severed individually, a waterfront of 77 meters minimum (as per the North Frontenac Official Plan) would apply but in a condominium arrangement, the 1.8 kilometers of lake frontage is used.

“It’s (lot averaging) quite common,” she said. “We (the County planning department) are of the opinion that the development conforms to the Official Plan.”

“A lot of people think this is the best thing there is but I don’t agree,” said Coun. Wayne Good. “Who’s going to police the number of boats at the dock? Our bylaw officer?”

“I’m going to vote against it,” said Coun. John Inglis. “Some of the waterfront units have as little as 61 metres frontage (and) I think this will come back to haunt us.

“There are lots of large waterfront parcels yet to be developed in the Township and this seems like a dangerous precedent.”

Reuckwald said that a precedent cannot be set with planning applications on the basis of a one-off development. “Each development is assessed on its own merits,” she said.

 

• • •

Council sweetened the pot for anyone looking to build its proposed affordable seniors housing unit, doubling its contribution to $100,000 from $50,000.

Ken Foulds of Re/fact Consulting said they can now ask for requests for proposal which will also include $330,000 from Frontenac County, fee waivers and/or tax relief.

Also in the mix are two potential sites owned by the Township including the ball field in Cloyne and the library in Plevna.

CAO Cheryl Robson pointed out that the Cloyne site is still used by some (often family) groups for pick-up ball and that the Township had tentatively promised the tennis courts could be re-fitted for pickleball.

Foulds said that with the additional funds available, it could be that any developer might want to look at different properties but if the Township wanted to steer them towards the Cloyne site, it should probably look at doing things like environmental assessments and hydro-G studies beforehand.

“The more shovel-ready you can make it, the more attractive it will be,” he said.

Foulds estimated the cost of such studies to be in the range of $13,500.

“So, we could lose $13,500,” said Dep. Mayor Gerry Martin. “That’s not a huge risk on a million-dollar project.”

The additional funds are slated to come out of the contingency reserve fund.

“I would suggest that we’re operating the contingency reserve fund with more risk aversion than we need to,” said Coun. John Inglis.

 

• • •

Coun. John Inglis, who chairs the economic development committee, presented a brief introduction and history of Gemmill’s Sand and Gravel, relating personal experience by reminiscing about Dale Gemmill telling him in the mid-1980s how he was selling his milk quota and starting in the gravel business so that his two sons Roger and Scott would have viable work.

“That one backhoe and one dump truck has grown into a corporation headed by Scott that now emplys 24 people during the busy summer season,” Inglis wrote.

Inglis said he had “help” writing the report from fellow committee member Paul Thiel.

 

• • •

Council directed staff to contact Lanark County to see if they could use their information on gypsy moths to put on the North Frontenac website.

“It’s excellent information,” said Mayor Ron Higgins.

Higgins said that he’d also contacted the MNR for information and was informed “the MNR does not do insect control on private lands.”

 

• • •

Council approved Fire Chief Eric Korhonen’s idea to share two cases of CR-2032 batteries with its mutual aid partners. The batteries were part of a donation the NFFD received from Duracell after submitting an application submitted in June.

“The NFFD has no use for the CR-2032 batteries and with the (other) batteries we received, we will have an estimated savings of $500 annually,” Korhonen said.

He said the NFFD was one of 25 departments selected by Duracell to receive the battery donation.

Support local
independant journalism by becoming a patron of the Frontenac News.