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Lake Waseosa Ratepayers’ Association c/o 21 Cottage Lane, RR#3 |
August 2, 2010
Mr. Paul Keighley
924 Wayne Drive,
Newmarket, ON L3Y 5T8
Re: 1488 South Waseosa Lake Road boathouse repairs
Dear Mr. Keighley:
Thank you for again sharing with us the current plans relating to the rebuilding of your boat house. I note that you have consulted with the Lake Waseosa Ratepayers’ Association since this issue first arose many months ago. I also note that for reasons outside of your control, what should have been a rather simple matter has not been simple.
I regret, therefore, that I must convey to you a serious concern with the proposal that your planner has made to the Town of Huntsville. My understanding is that you did not see this plan before it was conveyed to the Town. My concerns arise out of a site visit that I had on Sunday 1 August 2010.
Specifically, your planner’s proposal would involve the removal of a number of existing mature trees (largely birch trees) in order to minimize the distance between the route of access to your boathouse and the lake. I fully understand the perspective of the Town in that they do not want ‘driveways’ or access routes close to lakes. However in this case the proposal would be quite environmentally unfriendly. Their plan would involve the removal of all or some of the mature birch trees and some of the evergreens in picture K29. In addition, their proposal would involve removal of a large number of birch and other trees near the boathouse on the other side of the existing cottage as shown in K41.
Instead, we would recommend and support the existing access to the boathouse which has been used for years. Specifically, this would involve proceeding down the boat access path (see photo K28) and turning left (north) across the natural meadow after the last birch tree in this photo. That is, that the unimproved route remains on the lake side of the birches in K31 (near where the chairs are placed in this photo), proceeds to the rear of the stone BBQ (see K32) to the pre-existing foundation of the boathouse and then to the rear of the left corner of the boathouse. Behind that, the remains of the boathouse that were destroyed some time ago are being stored. No mature trees would have to be destroyed to utilize this existing access.
My understanding is that the plan incorporates some planting in the litoral zone along the lakeshore. This is a generally accepted method of buffering human activity and should serve to help protect Lake Waseosa. Our recommendation on this is that whatever you do plant should be native to the region.
Our recommendation – that access to the boathouse be accomplished with a minimum of disruption to the existing trees, etc. – is made on the clear knowledge that, in general, access ways should, if possible, be placed at least 15 metres from the lake. In the case of your boathouse, however, the negative environmental and visual impact of a strict adherence to this standard is much greater than taking advantage of the existing route as we have proposed.
I hope that our recommendation is found to be acceptable to you and the Town. I realize that this has been a long and complicated process for you. However, I trust that you can see that the long-term health of the lake will be served by this minor change in the proposal that your planner has made to the Town.
If any of these recommendations are not clear to you, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Anthony N. Doob
President, LWRA