Planning committee turns down application for a dwelling on Gall Island

Several residents were before Huntsville’s planning committee on May 12 asking that its members agree with planning staff’s recommendation to deny an application to build a single detached, one-storey dwelling with decks as well as a boathouse and cabin on Mary Lake’s Gall Island.

The island is 0.39 hectares in area with a perimeter of 250m and a frontage of 103m on Mary Lake. It is situated approximately 30m southeast of the nearest mainland point, which is a water-access-only shoreline residential lot also owned by the proponent, noted staff.

Their reason for recommending that the application be denied is because Huntsville’s Official Plan states that shoreline development can only be permitted on islands with an area greater than 0.4ha, and due to the island’s shape and size the required setbacks, as per the application, for buildings as well as the proposed septic system could not be maintained.

The applicants, their planning consultant John Gallagher as well as Al Shaw from Riverstone Environmental and Mike Gooch with Cottage Country Environmental Services were before committee speaking to the application.

They noted that a tertiary treatment system for the septic would be used consisting of a Waterloo biofilter. Other measures proposed to mitigate potential impacts on water quality included the maintenance of a 15m vegetated shoreline buffer around the island as well as a rain garden around the perimeter of the proposed dwelling.

“The cottage is modest at 1,800 square feet and a 284 square foot deck and the purpose of keeping it in a central location is to try to retain as much vegetation as possible,” said Gallagher, who also argued that it is a legal lot. “We want to treat this as an example of how development should occur on our lakes, not like some of these cottages that have clear-cut their waterfront right down to the water.”

But a handful of residents who spoke at the remotely held meeting expressed concern with the septic system proposed and the possibility that it could fail, noting that the island has a huge amount of bedrock and is not big enough for a dwelling.

They also raised concerns about the visual impact the development of the island would have on surrounding properties, the character of the lake, and the environmental integrity of the small island.

“I trust that people, you know, people do enter these things with the best intentions. I do trust that, but it’s not right and the precedence set for all the other islands on the lake is staggering,” said one resident.

In the end, committee turned down the application.

Councillor Jonathan Wiebe said he did not feel comfortable with what was being proposed. “I’ve heard on repeated occasions that it’s going to be designed to really fit in with the landscape and be really low profile and be all these things that I haven’t seen any elevation drawings for. I actually don’t know what the final product would look like… at 1,800 square feet, plus a sleeping cabin, plus a boathouse I agree that it is overbuilt for this lot,” said Wiebe, who has noted in the past that things are being overbuilt on small lots.

“Maybe if I saw something that was much smaller, and much more interesting in design that really did truly make an outstanding effort to blend in… maybe it would be something I would consider but at this point, I will not,” he added.

Councillor Bob Stone questioned the reductions to the required setbacks being requested by the applicant and said he would also not be supporting the application.

Deputy Mayor and committee chair Nancy Alcock said an engineered solution to build can be developed but said she did not think what was being proposed for the property was appropriate. “I would really struggle to support this application,” she said and voted against it.

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