Community members express concerns with 96-unit subdivision proposed on Town Line Road West

Photo: The applicant representing the development group for 206 Town Line Road West, Charry Rakhara, speaks to Huntsville Planning Council about approving the application. On the left is Richard Clark, Manager of Planning for the Town.

UPDATE: The story, and the Town planning report, indicated that the road frontage of the property was 29m when in fact it is 20m. The number has been updated below to reflect that.

The gallery was packed and more than half a dozen people spoke at a public meeting held at Huntsville’s Planning Council on January 17 about concerns involving a proposed 96-lot subdivision, Woodsview Estates, planned on lands at 206 Town Line Road West.

An application has been made to the District of Muskoka to subdivide the lands into 96 lots. The development would contain 74 street townhouse dwellings and 22 semi-detached dwellings. The undeveloped lands have an area of about 9.09 ha, a wetland has been identified in the low-lying lands, making the developable area of the property about 4.84ha.

The property has 20m of road frontage on Town Line Road West and the development would be serviced by a new public street network and include three open space blocks and one stormwater management block, according to the Town’s planning report. The applicant is requesting a precinct (zoning) change to a portion of the lands to facilitate the development.

The applicant, Charry Rakhra, representing the group developing the property spoke at the meeting. He said they’ve been working on the development for the past three years and they chose Huntsville for a development opportunity because personally, it reminded him of his hometown of Calgary, and “more specifically Canmore. We find a lot of parallels, a lot of similarities, that’s where I grew up hiking, camping, snowboarding and just connecting with nature. I think Huntsville provides plenty of that opportunity. That’s my bond to Huntsville.”

He said all professionals working on the development file are local to the area. “It is important to us that the Town and District appreciate our approach of integrating into the neighbourhood rather than purely being an external developer. We have made significant investments in Huntsville in addition to the lands being discussed here today. We are confident that these investments will provide growth opportunities. We feel that Huntsville should enjoy the growth opportunity that the rest of Ontario and the rest of Canada at large will benefit from [in the] foreseeable future… while maintaining environmental sustainability and quality of life.”

He said it is well known that Canada has a housing shortage and Huntsville is not immune.

Rakhra added that the wetland on the property has only recently been identified and has caused a loss of more than 30 per cent of the developable area of the lands in question. “In spirit of environmental sustainability, character retention, our proposed development plan has accepted this feature to be permanent,” he said, adding that all public comments have been received positively and have been given sincere respect and attention. He said over 3,000 planning hours have gone into the project so far and “in the last 12 months since the application was deemed complete we are still seeking approval. We feel that we have done our due diligence and gone above and beyond to ensure all parties have been acknowledged, heard, and complied with,” he said, asking council and District to provide planning approvals as quickly as possible.

Concerns regarding the wetland and drainage on the property were brought up repeatedly at the public meeting.

John Gallagher, planning consultant for the developer, said it appears the adjacent subdivisions have been draining into those lands and increasing the amount of flow, rather than going into their own storm drainage systems within those subdivisions.

Former Huntsville Mayor Karin Terziano also spoke at the meeting and said drainage going into those lands by some of the surrounding subdivisions was something that was sanctioned by the municipality some 30 years ago. She referred to the proposed plan as a complicated file and a far-reaching development.

“It’s a far-reaching development as you can see by the number of people here. There are folks here from Townline, Knotty Pine, Heritage Crescent, Stocking Lane, Anthony Court, Gorge Street, Southdale—the entire drainage of this one [development] potentially is going to impact people a lot further away than you would think,” she said. She said the stormwater management plan will be important as many of the areas represented at the meeting, as far away as they are from the development, are “just big flood plains. Sump pumps run non-stop. Flooding happens all the time and if we add another 96 properties and a drainage plan that flows down to where it’s already a problem, I just can’t imagine it,” she said. “Let’s be sure the new development is a good one. That it’s compatible. If the number of lots are closer to 70 than 96 or somewhere in between that number, let’s just make sure we get it right,” she said, referring to the proposal as a case of too many lots in too small of an area.

She said there was an assumption that the developer was going have an open house where questions could be addressed but that did not happen.

Provincial legislative changes no longer make open houses a requirement for such applications. Town Director of Development Services Kirstin Maxwell explained via email correspondence with Doppler, “There is no obligation for an open house, however, staff had suggested to the proponent that one be held.”

Other concerns expressed at the meeting included questions about the impact the development would have on the character of existing neighbourhoods in the area and proper buffers between single-detached homes and the development. The applicant has agreed to a one-metre buffer, but members of the public, including Terziano, did not think it adequate enough. “The base of these trees are larger than 39 inches and we all know when construction starts, you don’t save any trees. If you construct homes near them, they’re all dying. They might take a year or two to die but they’re all dying… let’s leave some existing trees between the Knotty Pine and Heritage [Crescent] and the new development… let’s leave some green,” she said while calling for a ten-metre buffer instead.

Other concerns expressed included questions about whether a 15m buffer for the wetland is enough, traffic concerns, and the loss of green space and wildlife habitat as well as concerns related to the entrance to the property and what one area resident referred to as false start development where trees are cut down and the development never happens.

“I think we have development fatigue a little bit in town. Fatigue in having so many trees come down and so much of our wildlife be compromised,” said Allie Chisholm-Smith at the meeting, noting that people move to the area for the natural environment, not fast food chains. She also spoke of the need for ecological corridors so wildlife can travel through.

Next Steps

According to the planning report a review of the Environmental Impact Assessment of the development is ongoing. “Once all comments have been received, and issues raised in this report and by the public are addressed, staff will be in a position to provide a recommendation in relation to this application. Once Council has adopted the recommendation, staff will also be able to provide comments to the District in relation to the subdivision.”

You can find the full planning report, HERE (pdf).

Location map

Don’t miss out on Doppler!

Sign up here to receive our email digest with links to our most recent stories.
Local news in your inbox so you don’t miss anything!

Click here to support local news