August 2007 - page 2

Commercial development on small lakes at risk

We're concerned about increasing the size and number of people in current commercial developments on our "over threshold" lakes and bays. Large developments have already been allowed to proceed on Nutt Lake and Medora Lake. There are no current planning controls restricting increased commercial development applications on these at risk lakes, so we have submitted a request to correct this matter to the Township Official Plan Review Committee. This point was also discussed at the AGM Q&A session with the Mayor when a member raised concerns related to a proposed expansion of a commercial development on Clear Lake.

We recommend that smaller lakes create active cottager associations, which can mobilize quickly to respond to significant development proposals. You can be proactive and create a Lake Plan for your own lake. This may help in any fight you have if development comes calling, as you've already worked as a group on an admissible document. Lake Plans can put in stricter development rules such as frontage required before building, setbacks, etc. If you are thinking of creating a Lake Plan, now is an opportune time since our Township is currently modifying their Official Plan and By-laws. Kashe Lake in the Gravenhurst municipality created its own Lake Plan and got it included in Gravenhurst's latest OP revision.

District lake health

The District has an excellent program that focuses on lake health. Maintaining our water quality is number one on the priority list for the majority of our Ratepayers. The District's yearly monitoring program, which now has considerable history, is excellent as is their definition and updating of "over threshold" lakes and bays. The District has also gone further by giving stricter development guidelines in OPA 32 for those lakes considered "over threshold" or "highly sensitive." We are lobbying our township to implement more stringent planning controls for lakes by lake size and health, which will give more protection to our sensitive smaller lakes.

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