Johnston’s Point land use condominium proposal passed by SF Council

Wilma Kenny | Oct 07, 2020

Johnston’s Point land use condominium proposal passed by SF Council

by Wilma Kenny

On Tuesday Night, (October 6) South Frontenac Council met in an in camera session to review the un-redacted version of the Environmental Benefit Permit for a land use condominium proposal at Johnston Point on Loughborough Lake. The permit was issued by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) a year ago.

Later in the meeting, council approved the draft plan of condominium subject to an exhaustive set of conditions the developer must meet in order to proceed. This ended a contentious process that has been before Council for 7 years.

Meela Melnik-Proud and Matt Rennie, opponents of the development, spoke online as ‘virtual delegations’ to Council: Melnik-Proud remained opposed to Council moving forward on the condominium agreement with the joint owners of Johnston Point; Rennie was prepared to ask Council to defer a decision until they had more time to review the material they had just viewed.

Township staff, who had drawn up 7 pages of conditions of approval for the draft plan of condominium were familiar with the Province’s un-redacted version, referring it in some detail in their report. The report listed conditions relating to protection of specific species such as brown rat snakes, blandings turtles, whippoorwills and butternut trees, and increasing shoreline setbacks.

Later in the meeting, when the bylaw came forward for a vote, Deputy Mayor Sutherland asked to speak:

“It is with a heavy heart that I will agree to this motion; at this point I don’t think there is any realistic legal way to stop more development on Johnston Point…Provincially significant wetlands are not a place for developments - that is why I…consider this a bad development. It is bad for our local environment and the health of our lakes and wetlands, features essential for the future of our local communities and, in their small way, the health and liveability of the world.”

He went on to quote from the 2018 Ontario Environmental Commissioners’ report:

“A subdivision that is built adjacent to a wetland may not cause immediate negative impacts, but eventually the cumulative impacts from this expansion such as road salting, fertilizer runoff, leaking fuels, wildlife predation from domestic cats and recreation overuse…can severely degrade wetland functions.”

He referenced the currently “weak Conservation Authority laws and strong protections for developers in the Planning Act” which allow this development to proceed.

After the motion passed, Mayor Vandewal spoke:

“It’s been seven years since this began. Now it’s up to Council to support our staff in seeing that these conditions are met.”

more from South Frontenac Council

New Open Air Burning Permit By-law

Council approved a new burning by-law which will require an annual permit for “any and all burning, including recreational and open air fires.”

Recognizing that this will raise many questions, the by-law will not come into effect until January 2021; the next three months will see an intensive information/public education campaign conducted by the South Frontenac Fire and Rescue. This will detail the problems the volunteer firefighters have been dealing with. Between June and July of this past summer, the department was called out 11 times because of fireworks, there were 31 open air burning complaints, 13 wildfires, including the Billy Green Road wildfire that destroyed 8 acres of forest and took 6 days to extinguish, and 4 other incidents that resulted in over 4 acres of burned land.

These incidents have placed high demands on our volunteer firefighters and increased use and maintenance of apparatus and equipment.

“Neither full-time nor seasonal residents have any sure way to stay up-to-date on fire ban status, said Fire Chief Knott, who also said that many people seem unaware of how to safely conduct open-air burning.

“A permit system and the avenues of communication that it creates, which is used by some other Eastern Ontario municipalities, will improve communications and reduce problem fires, while still allowing carefully managed outdoor burning,”
he said.

“Are farmers exempt?” asked Mayor Vandewal.

“No” replied Chief Knott.

Perth Road Communications Tower Approved

Council approved the installation of a 140-foot communications tower at the Perth Road Fire Hall, by Westport Telephone Company (WTC). Deputy Mayor Sutherland asked whether this tower would create light pollution: Councillor Sleeth said there has been no issue of this sort with a similar tower in Battersea.

Farewell to Gruntled Lane

Barry Campbell, owner of Shield Shores plan of condominium, caused a bit of a flurry last month when he proposed four lane names that were not on the approved list of names for future Township roads and lanes. Three were fine, but the fourth, “Gruntled Lane” disgruntled members around the council table.

Campbell has returned with a name-list approved by the landowners currently using rights-of-way along the two currently existing lanes. Everyone’s now agreed that the new names shall be: Shield Shores, Glacier, Birdhaven and Briscoe Bay.