On December 19, 2016  a meeting with Mayor Larry Braid, Councillor Brian Bochek and representatives from  SMLCA (Marguerite Locke, President and Frank Boddy, Vice-Pres.) and SMLRA  (Kristian Graziano, Julia Manning and Jack Petrie)  was held at the Petro Canada, Pt. Severn at the invitation of the Mayor to bring the two groups together to discuss the Interim Control By-law (ICB).

It was the opinion of all attendees that the sooner this ICB can be dealt with by Township of Georgian Bay (TGB) the better for all parties concerned. Our intent is to have it resolved if at all possible by May 2017 prior to the building season. Public input and communication with all SML residents is crucial.

At the Jan. 9th Committee Of the Whole (COW), the Mayor will be providing an overview of current Gross Floor Area (GFA) regulations for the Township as a whole, not just SML.

The planning department is preparing an analysis of 5 years of data on Committee of Adjustment (COA) applications requesting GFA above the existing cap. The analysis will include what is used in the calculations for GFA: i.e. basements above 5’9” and covered porches, plus various options/facts/data, and will be posted to TGB website on Feb. 7th with the agenda for the next Council meeting. The public can read and review it there.

February 13 Council Meeting will have presentation of said report from Planning Department, then debate same and Council will vote on the preferred option to move forward on that date.

Notice will be mailed to all taxpayers by TGB announcing the public meeting(s) to be held likely in Vaughan and possibly up north also, to enable as many Six Mile Lake residents as possible to attend. Also IT capabilities will be utilized to try to enable as many people as possible who cannot attend the meeting(s) in person to hear and ask questions. Target for said meeting(s) will be late February or early March 2017 (i.e.  Feb. 25th, 26thor March 4th, 5th).

During February the SMLCA and the SMLRA will work together to generate an appropriate recommendation for question(s) in a survey to be distributed to SML taxpayers by the TGB. The input from the public meeting should also be considered in formation of the survey question(s). The TGB will research with their staff as to whether the survey can be completed online or completed by mail per the tax roll numbers. Discussions also included whether there should be a Yes/No and “No opinion” option on each question in the survey.

It was undecided whether the Council would prefer to receive the suggested survey question(s) from our groups and then critique it, or Council prepares the question(s) and sends them to us for consideration. This issue is open for future discussion.

Also open for Council’s decision is who can vote or respond to the survey questions. The concern expressed is that if multiple adults in one cottage have varying views and have a vote, they will perhaps result in cancelling each other. Allowing only the “taxpayer” to vote requires families/joint owners to consider the question together and come to a consensus. The consensus in our meeting was that one vote per taxpayer is the proper way to conduct the survey.

All parties agreed that the use of websites, social media and email notices to our membership to keep them abreast of the developments of this important issue is critical.

The SMLCA and the SMLRA will work together to provide input on the voting criteria and the structure, wording and content of the survey to land owners, as requested by the TGB.