It’s Happening: The New Official Plan

South Frontenac’s current Official Plan, the basic rules that guide our community’s development, was written 20 years ago. It reflected the needs of the Township then; much has since changed.

Over the next year, to meet current needs, and address our visions and concerns for the next 20 years, we will be writing a new Official Plan. It will only be as good as your input.

In the next 15 years South Frontenac’s population is projected to increase by 2,767 and there could be 1500 new residential buildings. Where will this development take place? And what should residents be able to do?

Lake protection, limited ground-water resources, the number and size of hamlets, protecting agricultural land, commercial and industrial development, climate change and what small businesses can go where, are all issues that will be considered.

Details of the new official plan process will be decided by Council on August 6. Assuming they pass, three public meetings will be held in the fall: each meeting will ask for public input on three main topics areas:

1) Lakes and natural environment
2) Rural lands and economy
3) Settlement areas and community

The Township will also commission a Growth Management Study to comment on the impacts of the Township’s projected growth. This study, plus your input, will be the basis for a new draft Official Plan which will be brought back for more public input.

Watch for the times and places of the public meetings and please participate. This will be one of the most important decisions effecting our next 20 years.

The Strategic Plan

Council is also creating a strategic plan to help prioritize our budgeting, use of staff time and new initiatives over the next three and half years.

Have Your Say

An online survey, open to all residents, will start in mid June. There will be public meetings held in each district. Loughborough’s strategic plan meeting is in the evening of Tuesday, August 20. Watch for more detailed information in the tax bill, in the newspaper announcements and on the web site.

The Roads Are Bad

This spring the roads were particularly bad.

The multiple freeze-thaw cycles coupled with the usual winter and spring stressors caused some roads to virtually explode. Large sections of hard top just pulverized, far beyond the normal and what could be reasonably fixed with usual patching methods.
Sections of 12 roads, North Shore Road, Holleford Road, and Loughborough Portland Boundary Road in Loughborough, were identified by staff and the public as in need of extraordinary repairs. The cost of these emergency repairs is unbudgeted and just under a million dollars.

We can expect to see more unexpected and costly repairs driven partially by the emerging climate crisis. The effects of climate change have been felt with the winter roads budget increasing faster than the overall budget: largely driven by more freezing rain incidents.

In the short term, staff will be bringing back a report on how to move money within the roads budget to do necessary repairs on the 12 roads.

The longer-term questions are, what budget and staffing alterations are required to meet the emerging climate crisis? What should we be doing to limit the impact of climate change? These are big questions. How we answer them will have profound effects on our community’s future stability.

Lakes and Trails Festival

The third annual Lakes and Trails Festival is on July 20 from 9 to 2, in the Point Park, Sydenham. A variety of cycling, paddling and walking activities are the focus of the event. The dragon boat is returning as is the historic walk of Sydenham, the family bike, the bike-around-the-lake, and Frontenac Outfitters’ boats.

There will be children’s concert with Gary Raspberry at 11am and the Saggy Bottom Boyz  will play a lunch hour concert. All the events, including the community lunch, prepared by volunteers and South Frontenac Community Services, are free. Everyone is welcome. Come anytime.

For a full schedule, and a list of our generous sponsors, visit lakesandtrailsfestival.org.

By the way, it is not too late to donate and help keep the Festival going: you get a tax return. See you all on July 20th.

Welcome to Neil, the New CAO

After 10 years at the administrative helm, Wayne Orr is retiring as the Township’s Chief Administrative Officer. Thank you, Wayne, for all you have done.

Neil Carbone, most recently from Prince Edward County, will taking over as CAO in mid July. More information on Neil can be found in the Township’s media release.