{"id":61167,"date":"2019-01-22T16:48:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T21:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=61167"},"modified":"2019-01-23T11:03:31","modified_gmt":"2019-01-23T16:03:31","slug":"treasure-island-development-proposal-draws-opposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/treasure-island-development-proposal-draws-opposition\/","title":{"rendered":"Treasure Island development proposal draws opposition"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The council chamber was packed at a public meeting held by Huntsville\u2019s Development Services Committee on January 16 to gather input on an application to develop the only two existing lots on Treasure Island.<\/p>\n

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The island is located on Lake Waseosa and is divided into two parcels\u2014one is about 9.5ha (about 23.5 acres) with 100 metres of lake frontage, and the other is approximately 1.1 ha (2.7 acres) in area with 300m of lake frontage, according to Huntsville planning staff.<\/p>\n

Committee heard that the larger lot has been in the applicants\u2019 family for more than 70 years, since it was originally purchased by their grandfather.<\/p>\n

Proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under Huntsville\u2019s Official Plan, island development requires mainland docking and vehicle parking facilities. In a 2017 tax sale, the applicants managed to secure the entire island by purchasing the smaller lot. They also purchased two mainland lots at 143 and 207 West Waseosa Lake Road.<\/p>\n

Committee heard that the applicants want to build a dwelling on each of the island lots. Their plan is to create the required parking area at 207 West Waseosa Lake Road, a vacant lot with an area of 1,550sq.m. and 25.7m of road frontage, while 143 West Waseosa Lake Road, a small lot with an area of 475sq.m and 7.6m of lake frontage, would provide docking and boat access to the island.<\/p>\n

Both mainland lots would have to be rezoned in order to recognize their intended use. “Additionally, the dock proposed on the 143 West Waseosa Lake Road property requires a side yard setback reduction of 3m from both interior side lot lines, and an increase in shoreline activity area width to 54 per cent is also required to permit the dock and boat launch,” explained Huntsville planner Elizabeth Reimer in her report to committee.<\/p>\n

The island lots would also have to be rezoned from conservation to shoreline residential in order to allow development to proceed. But the applicants, supported by legal counsel and planning consultant Lanny Dennis of Wayne Simpson and Associates, said they only recently became aware that the Town had rezoned the island to conservation and said they had not been formally notified of the change or consulted.<\/p>\n

“We do not know how or why this happened. This may have occurred in the Town\u2019s comprehensive zoning bylaw in 2008. It is important to understand that this is not something new being proposed, but simply an attempt to rectify what we consider a past error and restore what in fact existed as part of our property for a significant number of years,” said Gayle Gailits, one of the applicants. She said her family had been paying residential rather than conservation taxes on the lot they owned for many years. She also said they were now having to go through a lengthy and expensive process to restore their property rights and noted that a general environmental impact study had been provided. “We cannot accept this rezoning change to conservation and want to have our property rezoned back to where it had been thereby giving us the ability to have one dwelling on 100 Treasure Island and one dwelling on 200 Treasure Island,” she said.<\/p>\n

Opposition to the proposal<\/strong><\/p>\n

The municipality received more than 40 written comments on the application, including from the lake association\u2014all opposing the proposal. Many people also drove hours from out of town to attend the meeting in order to record their opposition to the application. Their concerns included:<\/p>\n