Township of Muskoka Lakes Official Plan (OP) -

first draft up for review/concerns re aggregates

The first draft of the ToML Official Plan has been posted on the Township site and can be found here here.  Special Planning Committee meetings will be taking place on Monday, March 29th, Thursday, April 1st and we believe Tuesday, April 6th all starting at 09:00 hours. We encourage you to observe the proceedings virtually by clicking on the link below and then clicking on ‘view here’ in the document.

Monday, March 29th, 9 am - AGENDA - SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING - March 29 

Thursday, April 1st, 9am - AGENDA - SPECIAL PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING - April 1 

Tuesday, April 6th.  Link not available as yet but go to https://muskokalakes.ca, click on Government Portal, click on Special planning meeting April 6/20

The aggregate component of the OP unfortunately does not strengthen the wording to prevent mineral aggregate operations in/near waterfront property as SLCO, Councillors, Planning Committee members and many of you have requested.

The present OP is very specific and states:

“Due to widespread existence of granite outcrops in the Township and the economic viability of crushing this resource into gravel, new rock crushing operations shall be limited to areas:

-farther than two kilometres of a boundary of an Urban Centre: and 

-farther than two kilometres from the Waterfront designation" (emphasis added)

The first draft of the revised OP is much weaker and states:

“New rock crushing operations shall be discouraged within 2 kilometres from the boundaries of the Waterfront Area designation” (emphasis added)

It also states:

The Township shall not generally support the establishment of new mineral aggregate operations in the Waterfront Area designation through an Official Plan Amendment, because of the potential negative environmental, social, and/or economic impacts (visual and otherwise) related to Muskoka’s lakes and rivers.

We of course are very concerned regarding the weakening of the wording including only ‘discouraging’ and not ‘limiting’ within 2 kms of waterfront, as well as the wording that says the Township will ‘generally’ not support.

We have other concerns that the wording has not been strengthened -which SLCO and councillors proposed during the discussion phase of the review.

SLCO has requested standing on Thursday, April 1//21 and we will present our concerns.  We invite you to observe any one of the dates by clicking the links above.

We are hoping that the next OP iteration will reflect the concerns raised.  We will keep you informed of our progress and whether we will require your advocacy as we move through the OP review process.

Sincerely

Linda Haslam-Stroud

Treasurer