Proponents of a residential development in the east end of Deep River feel they’ve reached a reasonable compromise with the conservancy group opposed to the development, even though it appears that compromise has been rejected by the Four Seasons Conservancy (FSC).
The compromise was brought to the attention of town council last week by Anthony Hommick, of Jp2g Consultants, which is acting on behalf of Claire and Stuart Kennedy in steering an Official Plan amendment through the planning process.
The Kennedys were originally seeking to re-designate 3.6 hectares of land from “Rural” to “Rural – Exception 3” to create five new residential lots, beyond the two severances normally considered by way of consent, without going through a plan of subdivision.
The property has 95 metres of frontage on Balmer Bay Road and 63 metres on Wintergreen Lane, and it also has water frontage on the Ottawa River.
Four of the new lots would have fronted on Wintergreen Lane, with two of them having water frontage on the Ottawa River, while another, along with the retained lot, would front on Balmer Bay Road.
But a public meeting on the issue in December drew an overflow crowd of people voicing opposition to the proposal.
Among those in opposition were members of the Deep River Cross Country Ski Club (DRXC), who argued it would impact use of the P and C trails of the club’s Four Seasons Trail System and the FSC.
“So many people have to realize what they stand to lose if this application goes through,” Four Seasons Conservancy chairman Ray Metcalfe said at the December meeting.
Meltcalfe referred to the 1995 donor drive for the acquisition of the neighbouring Deep River Community Woods from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and the subsequent creation of the Four Seasons Conservancy (FSC).
“What was the point of committing all this money in order to pay for what was already in the hands of the existing owners to buy out the possibility of one of those lots being turned into six?”
Hommick told council last week that, in light of those concerns, planners went back to the drawing board and plotted the ski and snowshoe trails on the property in question and determined that one of them would be “fairly impacted” by the original Official Plan amendment application.
And, in light of that information, the Kennedys are now proposing to remove the two middle lots that would have fronted on Wintergreen Lane from the original application…
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