New manager in SF

Wilma Kenny | Mar 29, 2017

Mayor Vandewal introduced Forbes Symon, former director of planning and development for North Grenville, as the Township’s new Manager of Development Services, with the comment; “We hope to see some measurable differences.”

No pressure here….

Desert Lake Noise By-law Exemption Request
A request from Sheena and Leo Pillay, owners of Desert Lake Resort, to have May 20 and all the Saturdays between July 1 and Sept 2 exempt from the Township Noise by-law between 8&11 pm resulted in two delegations and nine letters from unhappy cottage owners on the lake.

Having become aware of the local resistance, Pillay modified her request to Council, suggesting instead that she and her husband would prefer to meet with the cottage association to see what sort of compromise could be worked out. She emphasized that since buying the resort a few years ago, they had been trying to make it less of a party place, and more of a family-oriented business. However, she said they were faced with the dilemma that more and more campers expected campgrounds to provide a range of entertainment beyond hiking, boating and swimming.

Lake Association members Rick Saaltink and Kanji Nakatsu spoke of years of tolerating late-night loud music from the campground, and gave the impression that the prospect of every summer weekend being noisy had raised a lot of alarm among lake residents. However, they acknowledged the campground owners’ flexibility and willingness to try to arrive at a compromise that might be acceptable to both sides of the issue. Both said that the degree of incompatibility meant compromise might not come easily.

Council encouraged the two groups to get together and try to find a solution and report back by the mid- April Council meeting, so any agreed-upon by-law exemption dates could be voted on.

Minimum Distance Separation: New Guidelines
Planner Mills introduced the new guidelines for determining minimum distance separation (MDS) between barns and new development (intended to reduce land use conflicts between farming activities and local residents) should serve to clarify previous regulations. He noted that the new guidelines clarifies what is meant by “unoccupied livestock barn”; i.e., empty but structurally sound and capable of housing livestock, and describes how to apply MDS to existing vacant lots of record.  These guidelines, issued by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, came into effect on March 1st.

Required Septic System Pump-outs and inspections
In an unusual move, Councillor Sutherland asked that his notice of motion to support a resolution in favour of amendments to the Building Code as it relates to septic systems come to the Committee of the Whole for discussion and fine-tuning before it goes to Council next week for discussion and vote.

Councillor McDougall said he thought this motion would be premature: “We can’t pretend this would be a cheap process. It’s hugely challenging. We should wait and see what the province comes up with.” There seemed to be general consensus with this opinion around the table.

Climate Protection: Action, Not Words
CAO Orr reported that fifteen years ago, Council had passed a motion to form the South Frontenac Sustainability Working Group and to join the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) partnership for Climate Protection Program. Time passed, and only when the FCM recently contacted Orr for an update on our progress did anyone realize we, along with 16% of the provinces’ municipalities, were still formally members of this program. We have not: created a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and forecast; set an emissions reduction target; developed and implemented an local action plan, or monitored progress and reported results. The Township has taken some action however. It has supported a number of initiatives toward reducing the Township’s carbon footprint including following LEED principles in the construction of the library, converting all street lighting to LED, supporting trails and multi-modal transportation and solar projects, continuing to work toward more recycling and waste reduction, and identifying energy efficiency as a priority for the new fire hall.