By Adam Frisk
The fate of a significant portion of the Centre Lake shoreline in Highlands East was once again before the municipal council, as the community grapples with a large-scale proposed subdivision.
The Municipality of Highlands East held a public meeting to review the Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw Amendments for the contentious project.
The application, filed by a private developer, outlined a proposed subdivision plan spanning approximately 431 hectares, with roughly 115 hectares designated for development. The land involved encompasses several lots in Concessions 12, 13, and 14 in Cardiff, as well as the adjacent Crown Reserve and Original Shore Road Allowance (SRA).
This isn’t the first time local authorities have considered the development.
In 2021, council voted against supporting the transfer of the Crown land to the developer. In 2024, council also resolved not to close and transfer an existing, unopened road allowance on the property. A public meeting for the subdivision plan itself was held by the County of Haliburton in 2022, though the county has yet to issue a decision.
A key element of the current proposal centres on how the lots would access the lake. The land immediately butting against the water consists of Crown reserve of 60 metres, with the first 20 metres of that being the SRA. Since the proposed lots would not directly touch the water, owners would need to cross both publicly owned sections—the SRA and the Crown land—to reach the shoreline.
The proposed Official Plan Amendment (OPA) aims to create an exemption allowing the new lots to be recognized as having shoreline frontage. This would essentially treat the proposed subdivision as a typical waterfront development, even though it is backed against public Crown land and the SRA.
The required Zoning Bylaw Amendment would rezone the public Crown land and SRA to an Open Space Recreation Zone, limiting it to passive recreational use. It would then zone the development lands themselves to an appropriate Shoreline Residential Zone and designate natural features within the project area as Environmental Protection.
The proposal is facing significant pushback from various agencies and the local community, primarily due to environmental concerns.
The County of Haliburton arranged for a third-party peer review of the developer’s environmental studies. The review reportedly identified gaps in the information, concluding that the environmental data provided was insufficient to confirm the development would not harm sensitive surrounding habitats, particularly those supporting species at risk.
Residents also made their opposition clear. Dozens of people submitted letters to the municipality, and a petition opposing the development had been submitted with more than 140 signatures.
“The proposal would fundamentally alter the character of Centre Lake, erode established planning safeguards, consume the lake’s entire recreational capacity, and set a precedent for piecemeal, developer-driven planning that is contrary to the comprehensive and cumulative approach demanded by provincial and municipal policy,” resident Krystle Shannon wrote to council.
“Centre Lake in its natural state is an oligotrophic shallow lake which combination is very rare and therefore, the lake is an exceedingly important natural site for lake science. Specifically, its value in being able to see the status of sensitive lakes and in comparison to human impacts on developed lakes is an unparalleled opportunity in the Highlands,” The Land Between charity wrote. “The development of this lake would be a loss to fisheries management aspects and for the knowledge it could contribute to the public sphere on stewarding lake health.”
Council will now weigh the developer’s plans and the proposed changes against the environmental assessments and the expressed will of residents, and a decision will be made at a later date.
