By Adam Frisk
The Municipality of Dysart et al is moving ahead with its proposed changes to the shoreline protections policy, allowing for the building of sheds, saunas and gazebos on privately-owned shorelines.
During a July 22 council meeting, the municipality opted to move forward with the proposed changes to the shoreline protection policies of the Municipal Official Plan and Zoning By-law, allowing for one building near the shoreline of a body of water. Current setbacks are 20-30 metres.
Director of planning and land information Jeff Iles presented a report with two recommendations following the feedback from the public open house held on July 8. The first option was to proceed with the policy changes, with a few recommendations from Iles and his staff, and second option of withdrawing the amendments.
“I have reviewed the public comments received to date, including the results of the public
questionnaire. The volume and quality of feedback received has been great, I got to say. This is clearly an important policy topic for the public,” Iles said. “The comments and results of the questionnaire indicate the community is divided on the issue of permitting structures within the setback. The survey results indicate there is openness to limited, low-impact development within the water setback.
“However, a significant portion of residents remain protective of the shoreline,” he said.
The 13-question survey garnered nearly 750 responses with the majority of respondents being land owners and residents of the municipality. A slight majority of 56 per cent said they are in favour of policy change to permit a structure within the current protected shoreline area.
“At the public meeting, more factual evidence was provided that justified maybe keeping the policies as currently written, compared to reasons provided at the meeting to support changing those policies,” Iles said. “I still question whether the slight majority of residents who want to have a building in the water setback warrants changing our well-established shoreline policies that go back to 1977 which are designed to protect our lakes which are part of Dysart’s unique character.”
Iles provided council with eight recommendations should the municipality decide to proceed with the proposed amendments, including prohibiting saunas, moving the minimum setback from three metres to four and prohibiting the storage of vehicles, motor vehicles (including boats) and harmful fluids in the shoreline building.
The planner told council that oversight for many of the proposed amendments will be difficult.
“I’ll think you will see that will kind of be the common theme with a lot of these things, that it’s going to be difficult for the municipality to have oversight on some of these things,” Iles said. “Which might lead to increased enforcement or have enforcement difficulties.
While council approved some of the planner’s recommendations, they pushed back on others, including the mandatory minimum setback of four-metres for all structures, and allowing drainless saunas.
The changes to the shoreline protections policy remain only a proposal for now. Another public open house is set to be held later this year, allowing council members to gather more feedback from residents and property owners before deciding whether to adopt the proposed amendments.
