Shield Shores Plan of Condominium Nears Approval
The Provincial government in Ontario has had a focus on encouraging new housing starts throughout Doug Ford's tenure as leader, but regulatory hurdles blocking housing starts remain entrenched.
This week, South Frontenac Council is poised to provide final lower tier approval for a plan of land use condominium for a project in the Battersea area, an 18 lot waterfront and back lot development off Wellington Street in the Battersea area on and near Dog Lake.
The project has been developed by Barry Campbell of Kingston.
A staff report to South Frontenac Council, outlines the next steps for the project.
“Once the condominium agreement has been executed, Township staff will advise the County that all Township conditions for draft plan approval have been met. The County will then grant final approval to the plan of condominium application. The condominium agreement will be forwarded to the Township Solicitor to be registered on the title of the lands following registration of the condominium. The units can then be sold and construction can begin.”
While that sounds like a staightfoward path, it belies the reality that is has taken 7 years to progress from the approval of the draft plan, which happened in 2019, and proceeding to execute this formal agreement.
In a phone interview, Barry Campbell said that the delays were not caused by a single process that was slow, but by a “general lack of urgency to move forward quickly among he various bodies that needed to sign off along the way.”
Once built, owners of the different units (the equivalent of a building lot in plan of condominium) will jointly own 5 pieces of recreational land within the development, as well as the lanes that access their properties off Wellington Road.
Unlike other proposals in South Frontenacs, such as Johnston's Point, and the Hartington Subdivision, there has been concern but no organised publicopposition to this development, which is called Shied Shores in recognition of it location at near the bottom of the Frontenac Spur.
Barry Campbell said that he was not expecting the land use condominium process to take as long as it has, and it has not only cost him by tying up his investment in the property over that time, the housing market is not as strong in 2026 as it may have been in the post Covid constrution boom years in 2023 and 2024.
He said that COVID was not responsible for delays because all the departments he was dealing with, through the township, Cararaqiu Conservation, and provincial ministries, kept operating throughout.
The impact of 18 new houses, which will be built over time, on the hamlet of Batteresea, will be significant because of how small the village core is.
For South Frontenac as well, where CMHC is reporting 11 housing starts so far in 2026, this project will have an impact.
When asked if he would have bought the land where Shield Shores will be located and pursuned this land use development project, Campbell said he has not thought about that.
“I'm just happy to get on with it now, or at least when Frontenac County is signs off.”
He said is hopeful that will happen this fall, perhaps as early as October
