Study Sees Potential For Up To 50 Units On Former Sharbot Lake Public School Site

Jeff Green | Feb 23, 2022

The scenarios of either a single, three storey, 42 unit building, or separate 35 and 50 unit buildings were presented to the public last week.

At a virtual Open House last week, the Frontenac County planning department oversaw presentations by planning and engineering consultants who were tasked with determining what could be built at the two acre site.

“Sharbot Lake Village is built on rock. If we are ever going to have our community grow we are going to have to look at some way to deal with the sewage and the water, down the road, so communal servicing is very important to what is going to happen in our future,” said Central Frontenac Mayor Frances Smith at the beginning of the meeting.

The key component to the presentation was not the larger, mainly residential buildings with potential commercial applications. It was the smaller, 800 square foot structure that will house both the water and sewage systems that would serve the entire complex and perhaps the Oso Hall and three Sharbot Lake churches as well.

Phillip Tibble presented the water and sewage plan, which is to draw water from the west basin of Sharbot Lake into one part of the building, treat it and use it for the residents of the building (s) on the site. Similarly, wastewater would come back into another part of the building and be subjected to sewage treatment, leaving clean water to be released into the east basin of Sharbot Lake on the other side of Road 38.

Tibble pointed out, when questioned, that the decision about which basin to take water from and which basin to pump treated wastewater into was not arbitrary. The west basin of Sharbot Lake is classed as an at capacity Trout Lake, limited development, while the east basin is not.

Sonya Bolton, Manager of Community Planning for Frontenac County, said that the report that the consultants will be submitting to Frontenac County, will be the culmination of a pilot study looking at the potential uses of the site, if it is serviced by a communal water and sewer system.

“The purpose of this study is to look at the feasibility of whether we can develop on communal services, and secondly, it is about how much could you put on that site using communal services. Once the feasibility study is done there is going to be additional work that the township is going to need to do, to combine the technical work from this project, along with the concerns and issues that have and will be heard from residents, about what they would want to see on the site.”

Until now, the only option for development in Frontenac County hamlets, or any property, is through well and septic systems, which would limit the public-school site to 10 units at the most.

Joe Gallivan, Director of Planning and Economic Development at Frontenac County, said that the current thinking about how to handle liability for communal water systems in Frontenac County is to establish a new corporate entity, “essentially a public utility” to operate and manage communal systems in Frontenac County. He said that there are at least two other potential locations for communal systems in Frontenac County at this time, in Verona and in Marysville on Wolfe Island.

“The private developers would be responsible for 100% of the infrastructure costs to build the system, and then the utility would take over … the goal is to have no impact on the ratepayers in the rest of the township,” he said.

Aside from operating the systems, the utility corporation would also provide security against financial liability that could be felt by the municipalities should a developer run into financial difficulties.

The zoom based open house was attended by over 80 members of the public, who were given an opportunity to ask questions of the presenters.

Concern was raised by some members of the public about the idea that the nearby Oso Hall and churches may be hooked up to the system.

“Will there be sewage pipes running through private property to get to those buildings,” asked Rhonda Kimblerly Young, who lives in the local vicinity, “and if this is ever extended to private homeowners in Sharbot Lake, will we have a choice whether to hook in or not.”

The consultants said they are only looking at the public buildings as part of their scope of work, and there is no plan to extend the service to private dwellings. They also said that no private land will be used, that passage for any pipes that need to be installed will be done through township land or rights of way.

Another questioner wondered if any thought had gone into focussing the development, particularly any commercial aspect, towards Highway 38, which is on the eastern border of the site.

And there was also a piece of advice from one observer, Max Christie, an environmental engineer who said he “has worked on several systems in Eastern Ontario. It is my experience that the systems cost double the amount that they are estimated to cost, and often end up being too small for the job they are required to do.”

The study is the first phase of planning for the site, seeking only to determine the parameters for development. Central Frontenac Township has access to $300,000, money that was set aside or each of the Frontenac Townships in 2014. It is seed money for the development of seniors’ housing in each Frontenac township

The township could develop the site themselves, or it could encourage a third party developer to take on the development.

The presentation and other information about the pilot project is available at engagefrontenac.ca by clicking the green View Project button in the “Connect with the County of Frontenac” box.