South Frontenac Approves A New Official Plan

Jeff Green | Apr 16, 2025

It has taken well over five years for South Frontenac to complete a brand-new Official Plan.

The new plan, which was approved by Council on Tuesday, April 8, replaces a plan that has been in place, with revisions, since it was adopted in 2003.

The plan will now be sent to Frontenac County for approval. Final authority to approve Official Plans is a provincial function, but under what is called “delegated authority”, Frontenac County Council provides final approval for the Official Plans of the four Frontenac townships.

The Official Plan (OP) renewal process has been carried out by South Frontenac planning staff, with technical help from consultants, but the planning department at Frontenac County has been in contact with South Frontenac planners throughout the process.

Because of that, and because between them, South Frontenac Mayor Ron Vandewal and South Frontenac Councillor Ray Leonard control 3 of the 9 votes at the Frontenac County Council table, the final approval of the South Frontenac Plan is not expected to take very long to secure.

At the meeting last week, the timing of final approval came up, in the context of some of the changes in land designations that are coming about, when the new OP is adopted. The amount of farmland that is designated as “prime agricultural land” as soon as the new OP is adopted by Frontenac County, will increase dramatically, and that is important because housing development is limited on Prime Agricultural land.

Director of Planning Brad Wright said “there is driving direction by the Province of Ontario in terms of how agricultural areas are supposed to be planned. This direction applies to everyone, they apply as much to you as they apply to Sault Ste. Marie, to Sudbury, to Chatham Kent or to Peterborough. The province requires municipalities to project prime agricultural land, and that is a specific term. They have set a series of rules in place about how to define it and how to characterise it, and every municipality has to approach it in the same way.”

The province has expanded the range of agricultural uses permitted on these lands to include processing and other food production activities, but the lands are “protected from encroaching development which may limit agricultural activities,” according to Wright.

The new way of designating “prime agricultural land” extends beyond the former designation, which was based on the quality of the soil. In addition to lands with soil quality from 1-3, which is how prime ag has been determined until now, soils from class 4-7 are also included as prime ag in some cases, in order to create contiguous agricultural zones.

“There are approximately 250 contiguous hectares where this provincially determined prime agricultural designation is included,” he said. Property owners whose land will be designated as prime agricultural when the OP is approved, but is not currently, have the option of completing a severance application before the OP is passed, later this summer.

The new OP also includes areas near some of the larger hamlets in the township that may be included in future “secondary plans”, where developments using a communal servicing option instead of standard well and septic can be located in the township.

Township Office Construction Project Kyle Bolton, Director of Public Services, provided an update regarding construction of the expanded township office complex in Sydenham. He reported that the project is on track to be completed in August, and he said that the project is on budget at this point. “We are trying to have our first coun cil meeting in September at the council chambers. That’s our goal,” said Bolton. Updates from April 1 council meeting Council met in regular session on April 1, when they held a public meeting about a new procedural bylaw and looked at the makeup of council sub-committees Procedural Bylaw There were no attendees for a public meeting called to review and approve the proposed (new) procedural bylaw, de scribed as a harmonised and uniform procedural structure which will ensure that the township of South Frontenac continues to operate in an accessible, transparent and legislatively sound manner.

“That was the shortest public meeting ever,” quipped Mayor Vandewal. The new procedural by law was passed later in the meeting. Committee Mid-term Evaluation Alan Revill addressed Council about the proposal to dissolve the Lake Ecosystem Advisory Committee, pointing out that some highly qualified people were permanent or seasonal lakeshore residents with potential to offer useful information to Council.

Councillor Pegram said that one problem was that many of the area lakes had no formal associations. Mayor Vandewal noted that in-house grant programs for lakeshore residents, such as access road upgrading, had been very successful across the township, showing that there were other ways for the township to communicate with lakeshore residents.

The township is also represented in many of the annual lake residents’ meetings. CAO Fragnito said a lakes survey is planned for this summer which should provide more up-to-date information. Staff are of the opinion that the Heritage Advisory Committee has determined a new focus and have had success enhanc ing the profile or awareness of built heri tage in the township of South Frontenac. The Committee of Adjustment currently focuses on complicated consents as well as minor variances and enlargements of legal, non-conforming uses. Staff plans to bring forward a review in early fall which will reflect recent and considerable chang es and updates in planning and zoning. ■