Council nixes watershed development

North Bay city council debated everything from vegetative buffers to air noise zones regarding a 4 Mile Lake Road's property development application Monday. With 10 possible lots available on the watershed, the finer points of many policies within the city ultimately ended up defeating the proposed amendment.

During the debate the diverse personalities that make up council came through as it seemed that not a single councillor had the same point of view on the issue. While it's unfortunate for citizens to have their dreams of development property postponed or dismissed, the letter and spirit of the law dictates that the land on Four Mile Lake Road is, at this point, unable to be developed.

Four Mile Lake land owners Helen and Jack Norman, who have been spearheading the now defunct amendment, say that they are disappointed by the council's final vote.

“We knew that it was an uphill battle,” says Helen Norman.

Norman says that she thinks there are too many regulations and that council is more of less expropriating it in that sense.

“I honestly feel that that's what's happening to our property,” she says.

Paul Goodridge, a land use planner and Ontario Land Surveyor, has been assisting the Norman's in their fight to build on their Watershed property. He says that he felt, rather erroneously, that science was on their side.

“Every single current scientific report, whether it was commissioned by the Normans or by the City of North Bay were unanimously in support of this application,” says Goodridge.

Councillor Mac Bain, along with Councillors Chris Mayne and George Maroosis supported the amendment but were overshadowed by the rest of council.

“I wanted to see 9 new lots created,” says Mac Bain.

The Ontario Municipal Board has stated that the Trout Lake Watershed can have 10 more additional lots on top of the 13 that are already on North Shore Road. While Bain says that the lots were going to have some sort of an impact on the Watershed, it was to be minimal.

“I believe that this would have been a fair compromise for the lake,” says Bain.

Deputy Mayor Peter Chirico says that while he can't speak on behalf of all council, his own thinking behind not developing the property is that it is a policy of the city that must be upheld.

“The policies right now say 'No'.”

“If people want to change those policies, then bring it forward and we have a full on debate about it,” says Chirico.

Further, Chirico says that until he's been assured that there will be no impact from the creation of the proposed lots, he will continue to deny any motion put forward to council.

“We heard tonight from Brian Taylor and crew (NBMCA) on the Source Water Protection Act that deals with municipal water systems,” Chirico explains.

“What it doesn't deal with is individual water systems and we have to remember that on Four Mile Lake and all way down the chain into Trout Lake, including Trout Lake, individuals draw their water from those sources.”

Chirico says that if some sort of contamination were to occur where residents can't draw from the lake, they can't fall back on the municipal water system.

“Until we can prove that development is non-impact to the lake where anyone draws water from for their own drinking water, I prefer to err on the side of caution.”

However, the Normans say that they've spent a considerable amount of money on consultants to prove that the septic systems are going to be state of the art and that 4 Mile Lake would be a good place to experiment.

“It's far from the city's drinking water and on large lots,” says Helen, “I think that's the way to go with it. We'll see what the Ontario Municipal Board has to say about it.”

The Normans say that they are not giving up their dreams of development. They must now submit an application form to the OMB and make an appeal within 20 days of the giving of the notice which is likely to happen within the next business day.

“Of course, you're into a lot of money and possibly the 9 lots will no longer be on the table and we're looking at 22 lots then,” Says Helen.

“So I can't see anyone winning by going to the OMB.”

In any case, the Normans say that they are both determined and confident that they will get somewhere at the OMB. They have obtained the services of a municipal lawyer in Toronto that is willing to take on their case.

“I think that we'll get some satisfaction”, says Helen.