A Lake Plan is a document that can be submitted to the Town for inclusion in the Town's Official Plan. If approved, the "Policies" section provides lake-specific planning guidance, to complement the Town-wide provisions of the Official Plan. For example, Fairy, Mary, Vernon, Peninsula and Menominee Lakes all have approved lake plans (see http://huntsville.ca/en/townHall/resources/DEV_OP_Section8_Jan2015.pdf). Approval happens via an open process for community feedback, and Council vote.
The LWRA community has had an unapproved lake plan since 2006, but for various historic reasons this has never been taken to Council.
The LWRA Directors are currently working with the Town to pursue inclusion of an updated version of our lake plan. This new draft (attached), maintains most of the content of the earlier plan, in a streamlined version. The plan includes important sections on a vision for the lakes, the relationship to economic development, the character of the lakes, studies of the lakes and their carrying capacity, and LWRA stewardship efforts. Especially important for the community is Section 7, Policies.
This draft has been submitted to the Town, and some feedback has been received. We are endeavouring to work constructively with the Town to generate a plan with widespread support. The Town is also going through an Official Plan Review, and we will try to work with their timeline.
We urge all members of the community to read the document, and to provide any feedback to us via Secretary@LWRA.net. We will also provide an update, and receive additional feedback, at the Annual General Meeting on July 4th.