Huntsville’s Planning Committee is expected hold one last public meeting on February 15, 2017 before it makes a recommendation to council on the proposed expansion of Muskoka Landing Long Term Care. But given that opposition is still fierce, it is uncertain what steps, if any, the committee will take.
Muskoka Landing is a long-term care facility accredited by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and contains 92 long-term care beds and two short-stay beds. Its owner, Jarlette Health Services, is proposing a retirement lodge on the existing site with the addition of between 100 and 120 retirement units, depending on the plan’s final configuration. The additional beds would be housed in a four-storey addition to its existing building. Its height would be 15 meters (down from five storeys and 18 metres initially proposed). Its plan also calls for the addition of 14 townhouses adjacent to the Fairy Lake shoreline as well as a 60-metre wide docking structure along the shoreline of the Rogers Cove basin that would extend up to eight metres into the bay. A parking area would be created on Helen Street, which would accommodate about 130 parking spaces.
Since the proposal was first made public in May, the proponent has tweaked the number of parking spots proposed and decreased the height of the building addition. It is not clear exactly how many new units would be created, but the latest number calls for anywhere between 100 and 120.
Still, area residents argue the development would create a dangerous precedent for development along Fairy Lake or any other Huntsville lake. They maintain it would adversely affect the Fairly Lake vista, shoreline and fish habitat along the Rogers Cove basin. They also argue that the development goes against the Town’s Official Plan and that the added traffic congestion on Helen Street would negatively impact the residential neighourhood in that location. They have formed the Huntsville Lakes Conservancy Committee and are calling on the Town to deny Jarlette’s proposed expansion.
“A multi-storey building of the size proposed does not belong on the lakefront and would be more properly located in another area of the town of Huntsville,” reads a petition being circulated, which is expected to be presented to Huntsville’s Planning Committee this month.
“A building of the projected size, including the proposed 60m (200 foot) dock in Roger’s Cove (four times the 15m length currently permitted), would not be minimally obtrusive and would almost certainly have a harmful impact on both the aesthetic environment and the natural Type 1 Fish Habitat described in the Official Plan as ‘the ribbon of life’,” it adds.
You can download a copy of the petition here (PDF). Those wanting to sign the petition are being asked to either forward it directly to Kirstin Maxwell, the Town’s Manager of Planning Services at kirstin.maxwell
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Chartwell’s Traditions has a retirement home set in a field, best view in the place is the parking lot! Seniors really don’t spend time admiring a ‘view’. The amazing activities programs that retirement homes have put in place, leave very little time for looking at a ‘view’.
There is a development in place in the same area, (over by Home Depot) that features small bungalows crammed together! View is a great selling point, but it grows stale in a short while.
Nix on the affordable housing being placed on waterfront. A parkette with swimming area and picnic tables is better. Boat launches are sufficient, don’t need anymore.
Hopefully the town’s planners have seen an opportunity to get a parkland dedication that would include a boat launching pad and parking for same. The meadow park sub-division that was created over 40 years ago did not provide any there. This is the only opportunity that the town has to get public access to Fairy Lake in the Town proper.
In respect to Hugh’s comments above. No one is suggesting sending construction away. However the construction should/must fall in line with the Town’s Official Plan. If it can’t do that then they can take all of it away, …and thanks for coming. We shouldn’t sell our souls or our shoreline for a dollar.
Realistically the last place people should be looking for affordable housing is lakefront properties anyhow so that kind of thinking needs to be reevaluated based on simple logic.
I also think that a view is not the most important aspect of a retirement home. Proper care, cleanliness, a great attitude among those that work there and least of all affordability are all much more important than a view.
Our Town Planners are there for exactly what they hopefully will do to this proposal as its currently presented.
“the development goes against the Town’s Official Plan”
Is that not enough to have the proposal rejected?
If not, what is an official plan for?
Great, send this development and the construction and operating jobs and tax base somewhere else, while Huntsville people continue to agitate for more affordable housing etc. And put the retired seniors on a backstreet or out in a field where they have no view. Good thinking?
The proposed development is so unbelievably out of place with everything surrounding our beautiful lakes. It is totally inappropriate to put a large development right on the lake and essentially ruin the views both of the lake and from the lake. And to allow a developer to do this, although it’s against bylaws and building restrictions and the community plan, it is also a big slap in the face to all the homeowners who have kept their houses and buildings within the current bylaws and building codes. Preserve the views, the neighbourhood and the health of the water and put this large development where it is more suited and not directly on Fairy Lake! If you allow this… they’ll be lining up… condos on the water will be next.
To The Huntsville Doppler
Two summers ago I had the pleasure of spending my tourist dollars in the Muskokas visiting Fairy Lake, Joseph Lake and Muskoka Lake. I’m from British Columbia where we have our fair share of breathtaking lakes and scenery, both wilderness and more developed, and the Muskoka lakes impressed me deeply.
In the last 50 years I’ve seen hundreds of lakes on four continents and none of them beat the Muskokas for the natural setting, the cleanliness and the pristine lakeshore broken occasionally by private residence that, from my observation, enhance their natural settings. City councils in all these areas deserve full marks for refusing to allow rampant development and non-conforming structures to destroy these lakeshores.
Unfortunately I now read in The Huntsville Doppler and other Muskoka online sources that Huntsville Council may be about to capitulate to a developer from elsewhere in Ontario, a developer who is demanding that Huntsville sacrifice provisions of its own Official Plan regarding lakeshore development, a developer whose first interest is unsurprisingly not lakeshore protection.
I read the variance application on the towns’ website and it appears that Council is prepared to pass the application with little regard for its own Official Plan regarding lakeshore building height and setbacks, protection of fish habitat and preservation of the aesthetic and natural beauty of the lakeshore.
I also discovered an organization called the Fairy Lake Association whose website says their mandate is “to preserve and protect Fairy Lake and the surrounding areas.” It appears the Fairy Lake Association is also in favor of the application or at the very least, unopposed, and is willing to ignore its own mandate. Curiously, the Fairy Lake submission is signed by a committee chair, not the President as would be normal with a policy document. Perhaps there is no President?
All area residents should read these materials and ask serious questions of both Huntsville Council and The Fairy Lake Association for their lack of future vision and their apparent willingness to favor an out of town developer over local taxpayers and their own mandates.
Sincerely
Michael Tindall
Save our beautiful Lake from this huge development. Council must not approve this. Wrong place, wrong size. Developer gets rich. Why should Huntsville suffer losing its natural beauty ?