UPDATED
At Tuesday’s August 13 Lake of Bays Council meeting, Councillor Nancy Tapley is expected to propose a motion to place a moratorium on the Township’s controversial road allowance license agreement. This agreement is required by property owners who traverse an unopened road allowance to access their property.
Community members have criticized the required agreement, saying it places an unfair burden on those who already pay property taxes. The agreement requires residents to provide a survey, $5 million or more in liability insurance, and, in some cases, improvements to the unopened road allowance to enable emergency vehicles to get through.
“I feel that this road agreement was rushed through quickly before the council really had time to talk about it,” said Councillor Nancy Tapley, who said she has heard from community members about the issue. “Just hit pause and allow time to take a longer look at it.” She said the agreement works for some places, and if they’ve started the process, then they should complete it, particularly those acting as a road association.
“But I don’t like forcing it down people’s throats,” she said, adding that at least in the last 100 years, the municipality has not had any lawsuits pertaining to the use of public road allowances. She said, in her opinion, the bylaw was rushed without engaging residents first.
The motion on the agenda reads as follows:
“WHEREAS Council directs staff to continue processing Road Licensing Agreements currently in progress and amend the agreement to remove the requirement of liability insurance and annual fees,
AND WHEREAS Road License Agreements that have been executed before August 13, 2024, are to remain in effect with the removal of the requirement of liability insurance and annual fees,
BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Council of the Corporation of the Township of Lake of Bays approves a moratorium on the Road Licensing Agreement Program effective immediately until August 2025, excluding the provisions noted above and all new developments throughout the Township.” The meeting begins at 9 a.m.
Related
Lake of Bays residents up in arms over required access agreements
Lake of Bays adds information about road license agreements on its website
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The Real Person!
The Real Person!
Ahhh finally Council admits there have been no accidents for 100 years on unassumed roads. Therefore this is not driving up insurance rates for liability.
This is what they said was their premise for enacting this egregious onerous By-Law.
This By-Law needs to be repealed first and foremost. , then Council can review the impact on their ratepayers
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
The Mayor and Council are ultimately responsible for passing this terrible 2024-098 bylaw. It is not rocket science to read the Road License Agreement and see how unreasonable, egregious and extortionate it really is. Either Council failed in their duty of due diligence, or they were on-board with the terms. If it was an honest mistake –which is what Councillor Tapley seems to indicate: (“Yikes! we didn’t think the implications through!”) then please, take responsibility and repeal it. Why is the Township doubling down and looking for newer carrots to get us to sign (as per agenda item #6: If you sign the RLA, we might even sell you the road allowance later). The RLA is a legally questionable agreement that imposes huge fees to survey, improve, maintain, use and insure the Township’s property, damns your heirs to its terms in perpetuity, precludes any possibility of challenge and will ultimately lead to the devaluation of your own property. Why would anyone sign this?!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
One more very important point that I should have added to my post.
Be Aware:
If they bring a motion to delay until August 2025 and do not amend or repeal the By-Law, they can effectively remove our ability to legally challenge the By-Law.
Therefore the verdict is still out on what will happen next and what is planned!
We must keep working to repeal and or amend this By-Law so that it works for all, delay will not help us!
The Real Person!
The Real Person!
I’d comment but I’d probably say something not nice and anyway, nobody in government ever listened to anything I had to say.
Also, the way this thing is written is beyond onerous, the word ridiculous comes to mind first. You have a little hunting camp, the trail to it crosses a road right of way and you need 20 million $ of insurance? Get real!
We have lots and lots of lawyers in this land of ours and they need to come up with a workable solution here and this current proposal is not it!!