The City of Kingston has hired RFA Planning Consultant Inc. to undertake the Estate Residential Review. A draft report, after being received by the Rural Advisory Committee, has just been approved by Council. I assume that the actual study by the consultants will soon start. The information and results of the study will be used to update the Official Plan of the city.
The study will examine background information that the City has compiled over time. This includes vacant land inventory, rural severance activity, building permit activity and new estate lot development.
The review will identify trends in lot creation and residential development in the rural area, research current approaches to estate residential development in other Ontario municipalities, and recommend changes to the Official Plan policy on residential development and estate lot creation in the rural area.
The report currently in circulation presents the draft of the Estate Residential Review for public review and comment.[i]
It was presented to the Rural Advisory Committee at their March public meeting and approved by Council on April 14. That means the studies will go ahead.
The three areas that affect us along the Aragon Road and around Colonel By Lake are shown in maps that accompany the report, the most important for us is shown below. The other areas are along the River Styx and along the St. Lawrence River.
The area at the west end of Colonel By Lake includes Edenwood Estates and the pasture land at the corner of Battersea Road and Aragon Road. Part of this, along Maple Lawn Drive, is already approved for five estate lots and houses are currently being constructed.
The remainder of the pasture land abuts environmental areas and wetlands that continue into Colonel By Lake. It is hard to visualise more estate lots shoehorned in to this remaining land. The lots would not have waterfront as the criteria spell out as being “desirable” to be characterised as “estate lot”.
The most sensitive study area is at the end or our road on both sides of the Canal, and including the River Styx and Colonel By Lake. The part to the south-east of that area is Alan Point Drive and that is fully developed. The area to the north-west is transversed by three pipelines; to superimpose estate lots in between is possibly not the best idea?
The proposed study area south-east on Colonel By Lake is already partly developed with the houses facing us across the lake.
There will be open houses, I assume, and the Rural Advisory Committee will have input, therefore we might think about all this and form an opinion that you can bring to the table at these study forums organised by the consultants.
If you wish to give me some feedback please feel free to send it to: weversh@queensu.ca
[i] The full report can be found at this Internet address: https://www.cityofkingston.ca/documents/10180/8681053/RAC_A0215-15004.pdf/6e7c8953-8027-4bd8-866b-cccae64f8b13
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