By Chad Ingram

Published July 11 2017

The following are brief reports of items discussed during a June 26 meeting of Dysart et al council.

Dysart council approved an occupancy permit that will allow two floating docks to be located on a municipally owned unopened road allowance on Moose Lake for the summer.

The township received the application from three nearby property owners who as their application letter pointed out “own year-round homes in the county and operate active local businesses.”

Deputy-reeve Andrea Roberts was opposed to the idea concerned about what kind of precedent the township may be setting for itself.

“What if we have 10 people who want docks there?” Roberts said. “Or 50?”

The licence of occupation for the docks which  are approximately 30 feet long and eight feet wide at their widest points is good for one year.

The approval came with the caveat that further consideration for other uses may require realignment of the docks.

Council approved a site plan proposal from Abbey Gardens that will allow a former family home on the property along Highway 118 near West Guilford to be transformed into a lodge and cabins. A sustainably constructed food hub building exists on the property along with greenhouses and Haliburton Highlands Brewing.

Dysart council followed through on a recommendation from the township’s public meeting committee to deny a rezoning application that would have allowed Lighthouse Pentecostal Church to relocate to former Millennium Fitness building on Harmony Road.

The property is currently zoned rural residential and environmental protection and the church was requesting a zoning of residential type 1 exception and environmental protection. The rezoning was a condition of the purchase of the property by the church.

At a series of public meetings Harmony Road residents expressed concerns including those about noise traffic overflow parking snowplowing and drainage from the property’s parking lot which would have increased in size in order to accommodate the church.