President's Message
A Note to our Members
From: Linda Lachance, President
Date: February 15, 2023
This is just an update to let you know what things are happening behind the scenes at Trout Lake.
We will be sending out the membership renewal notices in early March. This is a change from past practice as it will enable the Association to better manage its spending and cash flow. You will note membership fees were increased at the Annual General Meeting last year to $40 per year. This better reflects our costs of doing business, increased insurance fees, the costs of annual audits which we are catching up on, etc. I highly encourage you to renew your membership early, in order to support the work of the Association on your behalf.
The first bulletin will go out to members in May when things begin to ramp up at Trout Lake. Due to the high cost of printing and mailing, we are slowly going to transition towards providing communication to our members via email. Please ensure when you renew your membership, that you provide a contact email. If you change that email, please remember to keep us up to date with that. Current happenings of interest to our members are posted on the Trout Lake Facebook page.
Our new Bulletin Director, Peter Stewart, wants to try sending out monthly updates in an email format, where you will receive a link to let you read the update on our website. These would be in addition to the 3 bulletins produced each year. We will be encouraging members to opt out of receiving printed bulletins in favour of receiving an email with a link to each issue. You won't have to download the bulletin unless you want to, but can read it or print it directly from the website.
With regard to the Happy Summer Village (HSV) issue, the following things are occurring. Due to our many conversations and meetings with the municipality, they are in the process of developing several new by-laws which will help regulate development. These include a Site Plan Control by-law whereby developments such as HSV will be required to provide detailed site plans in advance of development and enter into an agreement with the municipality for such development, and gives the Chief Building Official a better mandate to regulate development. Also in the works is a Docks and Boathouse by-law to regulate these types of construction. Third is a by-law regarding short-term rentals (such as Air B & Bs). We have adjourned our appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal with the development of these by-laws being a requirement of that.
The Sudbury East Planning Board is working on revisions and updates to the Official Plan. Two open houses were held, one virtually and one in person. Trout Lake was well represented at both and provided a significant amount of input and recommended changes. There were 6 representatives from Trout Lake at the in-person meeting, and only one other resident from another municipality. We had the ear of the Planner and Consultant for 2 hours of good discussion.
Some positive things have already come out of the proposed new Official Plan, including Trout Lake being named a special policy area, in view of the need to protect it as a lake trout producing lake and recognition of the need for a Lakeshore Capacity Assessment. The Planning Board is currently reviewing all the input received and making decisions on the proposed changes we recommended. We are awaiting the draft of the new plan, due very soon.
The Planner we had hired to consult with regard to the HSV issue, has proved extremely helpful in our discussions on all of the above issues, and reinforced our comments to the Planning Board with his own letter on our behalf. He also highlighted some other issues we had not, and so they are up for discussion at the Planning Board as well.
As part of the discussions, the municipality has agreed that a current Lake Capacity Assessment is necessary for Trout Lake. We are likely going to apply for grants, if possible, and work with the municipality on getting this done.
We're happy to announce the former pickerel rearing pond on the south shore has been decommissioned and all equipment removed by a Contractor. Although the upfront cost was substantial, we're now able to cancel the land use permit that was costing us over $500 per year for a purpose we no longer required. My thanks go out to Richard Lanktree and Dillon Ferris who co-ordinated getting this done.
As always, your Board is working hard on your behalf at Trout Lake. I do hope you continue to support the work of this Association, as it is a value-added benefit to being a camper and property owner on this wonderful treasure known as Trout Lake.
If you have any questions, comments, ideas, concerns, do not hesitate to get in touch with me or the other Board members.
Linda Lachance (the Prez)
(705) 857-3113
Trout Lake Campers Association Sudbury District
P.O. Box 315
Noelville, ON P0M 2N0