Official Plan back on the table in South Frontenac

Jeff Green | Feb 01, 2023

The updated South Frontenac Official Plan was first presented to the now former South Frontenac Council in May of last year.

At the time, the township’s Director of Development Services, Claire Dodds, was hoping to have the plan completed and in place before the end of the year.

But early last summer, Council and Dodds agreed it would be prudent not to try and rush the plan through, and the approval process was deferred.

This week, under a new Director of Development Services, Brad Wright, the draft Official Plan (OP) is back before Council

The newest draft of the OP contains a few amendments but is very similar to the previous draft.

The new draft reiterates the projection that 50% of growth over the next 30 years will occur in either the primary settlement areas (Inverary, Sydenham, and Verona) or secondary settlement areas (Battersea Sunbury, Harrowsmith, and Hartington).

One of the goals of the new Official Plan is to support communal servicing initiative that is being development in Frontenac County. Combined with sufficient promotion of locations within settlement areas, and the plan of subdivision process, communal servicing is expected to be a key factor in attaining the 50% goal.

Since the adoption of the previous plan, in 2003, the bulk of residential development in the township has taken place through severances on rural lots, and not in the settlement areas.

While some members of council have been hoping that the new official plan will be a mechanism to further that pattern of development, which has provided steady growth in South Frontenac for 20 years, provincial officials have made it clear that at least one means of doing that, allowing for more than three lots to be created out of an existing lot of record as of 2003, is not likely to happen.

“The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the County of Frontenac will not allow unlimited severances. We are working with them and their policies to find a suitable middle ground,” said Brad Wright in his presentation.

When the first draft of the Official Plan was presented to Council last May, Claire Dodds indicated that the province will not permit any change to the 3 severance rule.

With three new members on council, Wright told the News, in a phone interview, that he will take the necessary time to go over the plan for their benefit, but hopes that the public process will be able to be initiated soon, and the plan will be ready for approval by July.

Changes to the plan that are necessitated by the passage of Ontario Bill 23 and its impact on the role of Conservation Authorities and on-site plan agreements, will be incorporated in the Official Plan later this spring.