South Frontenac backs off on appeal of County OP

Jeff Green | Feb 03, 2016

Appeal period passes without incident

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has clarified the wording in a clause they inserted into the Frontenac County Official Plan, and South Frontenac Planner Lindsay Mills has informed his Council that an appeal is no longer necessary.

The issue that concerned Council was over a clause prohibiting development within settlement areas or hamlets where public water and sewer services are not available. As Mills pointed out to members of South Frontenac Council at a meeting on January 26, this clause would affect development in all South Frontenac hamlets (and all hamlets in the entire county)

Even Sydenham, the only hamlet in South Frontenac that provides water for residents, does not have a sewer system in place.

The clause included an exception, however, permitting new development in cases of “infilling and minor rounding out of existing development”.

Mills wrote to the ministry on the morning of January 27 asking for clarification, and on the same day Damien Shaeffer of the ministry’s Kingston office replied, saying in part, “The terms 'infill' and 'minor rounding out' are not defined and allow flexibility for implementation based on local circumstances.”

Shaeffer added that proponents of development within hamlets would “need to demonstrate that there will be no negative impacts associated with the provision of individual on-site services before the development can proceed.”

Since this is already how development is done in South Frontenac, Mills did not feel it necessary file an appeal of the Frontenac County Official Plan by the Monday deadline.

Instead he sent an email to members of Council late last week, along with a copy of Shaeffer's response. In his email, he said, “This letter addresses the Committee of the Whole’s requirement for written confirmation of the meaning of the wording. Accordingly, no appeal to the passing of the County Official Plan is necessary.”

The Frontenac County Official Plan came into effect on Tuesday, February 2, having cleared this final hurdle.