At its February 23 meeting, the District Community and Planning Services Committee approved the drafting of a bylaw amending Muskoka’s Official Plan and thereby enabling the developer of the Treetops Condominium project, on the north side of Deerhurst Drive, to proceed with their original plan.
That plan, which received draft approval in 2013, consists of 120 residential apartment-style condominium units to be contained within 13, three-storey buildings.
The Official Plan amendment would essentially buy the developer more time in order to complete the phased project. According to planning documents, the developer was given an extension in 2019 and 2021. The draft approval is currently set to lapse on January 30, 2024.
“The Condominium Act, S.O. 1998, as amended, requires that the entirety of a phased condominium be registered no later than 10 years after the registration of the initial phase. In this case, the approval will lapse on February 13, 2024. As this is a requirement of the Condominium Act, District staff do not have the ability to extend the approval beyond this date as any further phases will be deemed unregistrable by the Land Registry Office,” according to a report by District planning staff.
To address the issue, the developer is proposing to establish a second condominium corporation for the remainder of the project that cannot be completed by the 2024 deadline. It is anticipated that the two condominium corporations would later be merged once the project is completed.
According to planning staff, the development associated with the second condominium corporation would be accessed through and serviced by the first, Muskoka Condominium Corporation 76 (MCC76) through shared facility agreements.
While municipal water and sewer services are available along Deerhurst Drive, private internal connections owned by the existing corporation “are currently servicing Phases 1, 2A and 2B of the development from this location. However, the applicant is proposing to provide water and sanitary sewer services by connecting to the existing private internal connections owned by MCC76. Based on the submitted proposal, these water and sewer service connections would service two separate individual condominium corporations, with no plans or ability for these services to become municipally owned and operated in the future. In accordance with the policies of the MOP [Muskoka Official Plan], private communal services proposed to service residential development requires an amendment to the Plan.”
Committee heard that concerns raised during a public meeting in January such as stormwater runoff can be addressed at a later planning stage.
You can find District planning staff’s report here (pdf).
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I hope the developers will provide units with parking equipped for charging electric vehicles of condo owners. They will need to drive to the grocery store etc. Affordability and accessibility of some units would create a more diverse community. Preserving or growing some green area for play and perhaps food gardening would be climate resilient site features for the future. Not just an expensive exclusive second home fortress.
In Horseshoe Valley there are many issues due to disputes re private and municipal water services. Keep it Municipal for peace going forward.