5 years in, Ardoch Lake development still needs more work

Jeff Green | Aug 23, 2017

After a Public Meeting last Saturday (August 19), Frontenac County Planner Joe Gallivan said that a proposal to create 24 waterfront and 6 land-bound lots on a 45-acre parcel of land on Ardoch Lake will need even more work before it is brought forward for approval by Frontenac County Council.
The meeting, which was conducted by the Frontenac County Planning Advisory Committee, was held at the Clar-Mill Hall in Plevna in front of 34 people, including the applicant as well as Ardoch and Malcolm Lake residents and Lake Association activists from throughout the township.

A public meeting was held in 2014 on a 35 lot proposal and when the applicants first came to North Frontenac Council in 2012 the applicants were proposing to create almost 50 waterfront lots on the lake.
Among the issues that are still to be resolved before the planning committee can complete its evaluation of the proposal and make a recommendation to Frontenac County Council, are the locations of the wells on some of the proposed lots. Malroz Engineering, which provides peer review services to Frontenac County, expressed concerns recently over a change in placement of some wells in the newest version of the plan.
“In our peer reviews we identified that wells should be hydraulically upgradient from the septic systems. The lot servicing plan provided at the time (attached) appeared to address this. The revised plan you provided appears to contradict this. We continue to recommend that septic systems be upgradient of the water supply wells. No rationale to seek an alternative has been put forward at this time,” said Jonathan Pyke from Malroz.
This information was shared with the applicant for response.

Perhaps more serious issues at play are the status of a Heron Rookery on the property where the vacant land condominium is proposed, which will need to be protected. As well, the shoreline where the properties are located is very shallow, and includes some fish spawning beds that have been upgraded in recent years by members of the Maldcolm and Ardoch Lake Association (MALA).
After the meeting, Joe Gallivan said that he will be seeking further information from the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) on how to balance the proposed development with those environmental features.
Other issues that were brought up at the meeting by MALA was about how the potential impact on the lake from 30 new septic systems is calculated. They argue that each new property could be or become a permanent residence and the potential for year round use should be considered in all calculations, and not the “extended seasonal use” that is the basis for the evaluations that have been done thus far.
According to Brenda Martin, a member of the MALA executive who was at the meeting, the residents are not opposed to new lot development, but they envision “eight or nine lots” which is in keeping with the lot density on the rest of the lake, “not 30 lots”.

The Planning Advisory Committee of Frontenac County Council was only formed one year ago to conduct public meetings on all planning matters where the County has approval authority. These include Official Plans for the townships, and plans of subdivision and vacant land condominium – which can be extremely complicated when they are located on waterfront – which is common in Frontenac County.
The Committee is made up of the Mayors from the four Frontenac Townships as well as three public appointees. Among the committee’s roles is to make recommendations to Frontenac County Council concerning land use planning proposals that come to council for approval.

The committee will meet on September 12, and the Ardoch Plan will not be on the agenda although the applicant, Global Land Consortium, may be appearing as a delegation. The meeting after that is set for November. Gallivan said that the committee may hold another Public Meeting on the Ardoch Plan sometime in 2018.