Central Frontenac Council - Sept. 14/10

Sep 16, 2010

Central Frontenac Talks Zoning

by Julie Druker

The township’s planner, Glenn Tunnock, made a presentation to council regarding the Comprehensive Zoning By-Law, which highlighted a number of changes that have been made to the by-law and the reasons behind them. A public meeting followed and two members of the public raised their particular concerns. One of them, Derek Moodie, had purchased a piece of land that had an exception to the bylaw on it, which he requested that council reconsider.

After much discussion, council members weighed in with their own concerns.

Councilor Gary Smith requested clarification on just what kinds of buildings are allowed on waterfront lots. Tunnock responded that all buildings must be 30 meters back from the shore line, though viewing stands and gazebos can be built 15 meters back, and storage facilities might fall under either designation depending on the circumstances.

Councilor Guntensperger raised concerns about the development of docks on marsh land, the overall 60% increase in allowable dock size, and the increase in road frontage, all of which he said are “contrary to my beliefs as to what is appropriate for the protection of the waterfront in this area.”

Tunnock pointed out that the natural vegetative area along shorelines has been increased in this proposed bylaw to double what it was under the former 2002 bylaw, from 15 meters to 30 meters.

As far as the increase in the permitted size of docks, Tunnock pointed out that an increase allows people to access the water in certain circumstances and said, “When you look at the package of shoreline management tools that has been put in place, we will have achieved if not surpassed provincial regulations. This will go a long way in protecting the shoreline.”

Councilor Purdon questioned the time-line of the proposed Zoning Bylaw, which is slated to be approved at the next Council meeting on September 28.

This concern was reiterated by various members of council and Mayor Gutowski, who suggested that a task force be struck to iron out the details of the by-law. The task force would include councilors, members of the public, and the planner.

After further discussion, a motion was passed allowing council to set aside a special future meeting to work on the bylaw.

In the words of Councilor Gary Smith, “This will allow Council a final kick at the can before the new council takes over.”

Backfilling Wetlands?

Councilor John Purdon brought to council's attention a response written by the township’s CAO, John Duchene, to a letter received from the North Frontenac Non Profit Housing Corporation. The letter complained about the filling in of wetlands at 1068 Clement Road, the location of a garage owned by resident Roy Sepa.

Duchene’s response to the housing corporation said the township did not really have jurisdiction over Sepa’s actions.

Council felt that Duchene should have consulted the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority before responding to the letter, and after much discussion council passed a motion to seek the opinion of the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority on the matter.

Parham fairgrounds and canteen

A motion was passed by council to support an application under the Eastern Ontario Development Program (of the Frontenac Community Services Development Corporation) for $10,000 to assist with the reconstruction of the Parham fairgrounds canteen building. A subsequent motion was also passed to grant $2000 to the Parham Fair Board with an additional amendment requiring that the fair board provide financial information to council.

A sad farewell to the Flyers

It was with uniform sadness and regret that council passed a motion to accept a letter from the Frontenac Flyers announcing they are folding, ending the tradition of Junior C hockey at the Frontenac Arena.

Works summary disappoints some on CF Council

by Jeff Green

At their first Committee of the Whole meeting taking place in the heat of an election campaign, a report by Treasurer Judy Gray about road and bridge construction that was contracted out over the past eight years did not show what some councilors wanted to see.

The report was prepared as part the township’s efforts to quantify their physical assets as part of a provincially mandated program called PSAB (Public Sector Accounting Board.)

It was only presented to Council as an information report, but what it showed was that the amount of contracted out construction was highest in Olden District ($1.69 million) and Hinchinbrooke District ($1.65 million) a bit lower in Kennebec District ($1.53 million) and substantially lower in Oso District ($1.04 million) over that time frame.

The results don’t jive with the opinion held by some councilors that Oso district receives the lion’s share of public works expenditures.

“This is sort of like throwing a hamburger at a pack of dogs,” said Councilor Norman Guntensperger, “it’s bound to start a fight. I don’t think reports like this, that only include partial information about road work, are very useful.”

“I think this is valuable,” countered Councilor Frances Smith, “it shows that we have a big township and we have spent a lot of dollars over eight years. I think we should feel good about what we’ve done.”

In addition to the money that was spent in the four districts, a large amount, $6.75 million was spent on downloaded roads, the bulk of that money being the $6.1 million that was spent on the rebuild of Road 38 in 2006.

Minor changes at dump site – A site visit by Sarah Dick, of the Ministry of the Environment, to the former Elbow Lake dump site, which is now being operated as a transfer station, resulted in a ruling that a new sign must be put up by the end of this year.

While this was not of great concern to Council, Mayor Gutowski pointed out that when she attended a waste management session at the recent Association of Ontario Municipalities conference, she learned that there are only 81 approved dumpsites in the province.

“This brought home to me how difficult it is to start up a waste site. We are lucky enough to have three approved sites, which is a lot when you consider how many municipalities there are in Ontario. We are going to have to make sure that we make an effort to reduce, re-use and recycle because when those sites are full they will not be replaced.”

To that end, Public Works Manager Mike Richardson recommended that the township’s waste management committee, which has met sporadically over the past four years, be encouraged to meet regularly when the new council starts up next year.

Mould issues surface at Mountain Grove Public Library

At a site visit on July 21 by staff and management from the Kingston Frontenac Public Library to the Mountain Grove branch, musty odours were identified. In the summary of the report prepared after that visit, it was also noted that “delaminating plaster finishes and staining in the common areas of the building” were identified.

An environmental assessment was done by Pinchin Environmental Ltd., which made nine recommendations, among which were the installation of a dehumidifier, which has already been initiated, as well as a number of further improvements.

CAO John Duchene said that the library staff “did not raise that many alarm bells, except that we need to do some further investigation, and because of the age of the building, asbestos is always a potential issue.”

Councilor Norm Guntensperger was less optimistic. “The endgame is what jumps to mind here. Mountain Grove needs a library and if in the end this is not a usable facility, I think the township needs to assure the public that we are committed to maintaining a library in Mountain Grove … the fire hall was constructed in such a way as to permit for renovation for a new library. We should look into that.”

“Council should proceed with caution until the future use of the existing building is determined,” said Mayor Gutowski.

Good year for construction – After an off year in 2009, 2010 is shaping up to be a better year for construction in Central Frontenac.

To date, permits for 26 new homes have been taken out, and the total value of construction, according to permits as of the end of August, is $5.357 million - over $2 million more than was the case at the same point in 2009, and about $200,000 more than 2008.

The total for August alone was $1.73 million, which according to Chief Building Official Ian Trickett was the most in any month in the history of the township.

“Did the August total include the seniors’ housing project?” asked Mayor Gutowski.

“I don’t know off-hand,” Trickett replied, “but even if it did, we are still more than holding our own this year.”