South Frontenac Council - Feb 9/16

Jeff Green | Feb 10, 2016

Harrowsmith Community Improvement Plan

Frontenac County Manager for Economic Development, Anne-Marie Young, accompanied by the new community planner, Reid Shepherd, brought some of the new members of council up to speed on how Community Improvement Plans (CIPs) can be used to rejuvenate and create opportunity for hamlets within the municipality.

With a CIP in place, the township is in a position to provide matching grants and loans to businesses in order to improve storefronts, do landscaping, and make various other improvements.

Frontenac County embarked on CIPs several years ago, the first one being done in Verona, followed by Marysville, Sharbot Lake, and the entire Township of North Frontenac. In Verona $45,000 was invested in grants and loans under the CIP and over $600,000 was invested by the private sector.

“It looks impressive,” said Anne Marie Young, “but part of it was luck, as Revell Ford happened to be doing their major face lift when the CIP came along.”

In October, county council decided to extend the program, and in December they chose Harrowsmith as the next CIP community.

Meetings will be held in Harrowsmith in the coming weeks to determine first where the boundaries of the CIP will be, and what kinds of initiatives fit the community best. One of the potential focus points could be a cleanup and preparation for redevelopment at the Saputo site, the former Harrowsmith Cheese Factory on Harrowsmith Sydenham Road near Road 38.

“The process will be simplified this time around,” said Reid Shepherd, “because an Official Plan amendment will not be necessary since one was done for the Verona plan already.”

Anne Marie Young said the goal is to have the plan up and running by the fall of this year.

“$70,000 is available for the CIP from Frontenac County, and the township might consider investing some money into it as well. For Verona, the county and the township each invested $40,000,” said Young.

“We can look at that for our 2017 budget,” said Mayor Vandewal.

Sydenham Water reports

Kevin Riley, from Utilities Kingston, brought what he described as a short report to Council on the performance of the Sydenham water treatment plant for 2015.

“Essentially the plant operated without incident in 2015,” he said.

There was only one adverse result from water testing all year, and that “turned out to be due to lab error,” he added.

A longer report into plant capacity was delivered by Kate Morrow and Jim Miller, who are also with Utilities Kingston. They presented a number of calculations based on current use and projected use, the upshot being that water demand might outstrip the plant's capacity at some point in the future. However, that day is not pending.

Easy consensus on planning matter

Planner Lindsay Mills brought a matter to Council's attention in anticipation of a request by a resident to tear down and rebuild a cottage that is located right on the water; in fact it is leaning over the water, on Loughborough Lake.

“The resident wants to build in the same location, but according to our bylaw he needs a minor variance in order to waive the 30 metre setback. There is plenty of room for him to build well back from the water so a variance is not necessary in this case,” Mills said.

“I would like an indication of Council's opinion, as they will be asking me what the township's position is,” he added.

One by one the councilors indicated they agree with Mill's position that the resident needs to build his new cottage 30 metres back from the lake.

“That's clear then,” he said.