The Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands council has unanimously supported a one-year extension for a plan of subdivision involving property on the Thousand Islands Parkway.

At its meeting Sept. 11, council backed the request from Fotenn Planning and Design for a one-year extension for draft approval of the plan of subdivision submitted by Greene’s Electric Plumbing and Heating Limited.

On Aug. 11, a request was submitted to the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville by Fotenn Planning and Design on behalf of the property owner, requesting a further one-year extension to the draft approved plan of subdivision. The property is located east of Gananoque, with frontage on the Thousand Islands Parkway.

The correspondence indicates that, given the time it has taken to resolve the environmental concerns with the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority and to co-ordinate studies and evaluations with consultants, it is unlikely that the remaining work will be completed and reviewed by the appropriate agencies before draft approval lapses on Oct. 2.

Support of this extension, staff noted to council, will allow the developer to finalize the required studies and proceed with an application for final subdivision approval.

Coun. Jeff Lackie said he’s seen equipment on the property in question and asked if “anything would be done soon.”

Staff noted that because this was for the renewal of a draft plan, with no final plan approval, there’d be no construction ongoing, however, there’s a chance that drilling could be ongoing for geotechnical or hydrogeological reports.

Coun. Brian Mabee asked when construction may in fact begin.

Marnie Venditti, the director of planning and development for the township, said that’s difficult to predict.

“Hopefully within the next year we have the draft plan approval, and everything completed as it relates to this, which would necessitate going through a final plan approval,” said Venditti. “Without having more information, I can’t speak to what the plan is here.”

The original draft plan included 25 single residential lots, two open-space blocks and a private park block. On June 20, 2019, counties council amended the conditions of the approval to include a lapsing date of three years to update the conditions to reflect current policy requirements. Accordingly, the existing draft plan approval was to expire on Sept. 30, 2022.

On June 13, 2022, a report was brought forward to council requesting a one-year extension to the draft approval. Council support for the request was provided to the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville (UCLG) and the draft approval was extended to Oct. 2, 2023.

The UCLG has circulated a new request for extension to the township for comment. Staff do not have delegated authority to provide comments to UCLG regarding the request.

With council being supportive of the recommendation in this report, and having passed a resolution to further extend the draft plan approval for an additional year, the resolution will be provided to the UCLG in support of the developer's request.

(Keith Dempsey is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Brockville Recorder and Times. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.)

Keith Dempsey, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Brockville Recorder and Times