The Town of Innisfil’s controversial interim-control bylaw — freezing development and building applications along the easternmost stretch of Innisfil Beach Road between 25 Sideroad and Lake Simcoe — has been extended.
The bylaw was put in place after Innisfil updated its Official Plan in January 2018, redesignating the properties on the south side of Innisfil Beach Road, and a portion of Lakelands Boulevard, from residential to commercial. The bylaw was designed to prevent development until mixed-use zoning regulations were approved for the redesignated properties.
Interim-control bylaws generally lapse after a year. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the emergency orders banning large gatherings and the subsequent cancellation of a public meeting planned for March 18 regarding the proposed zoning-bylaw amendment, the measures will remain in place.
A provincial regulation passed in April automatically extended the interim-control bylaw, which was set to expire on May 8, 2020.
It will now lapse 52 days after the provincial emergency order is lifted.
The municipality has notified residents that the mixed-use zoning bylaw amendment has been prepared and can now be viewed online here on the town's website, but no decision will be made by council until a rescheduled public meeting can be held.
It could be an online public meeting, noted Mary Nordstrom, the town's manager of land-use planning.
“The town is currently preparing to implement virtual public meetings,” she said.
Residents will be notified about any rescheduled public meeting for the proposed downtown Alcona rezoning, Nordstrom added.
The mixed-use zoning requires at least 50 per cent of ground-floor uses to be non-residential: commercial or institutional.
Among the permitted uses on the south side of Innisfil Beach Road are: bake shops, banquet halls, convenience stores, custom workshops, day nurseries, commercial schools, financial institutions and professional offices, fitness centres, fruit markets and grocery stores, funeral homes, hotel/motels, dry-cleaning establishments, medical offices, personal service establishments, pet daycare, photography and artists’ studios, restaurants and places of entertainment, retail stores, shopping centres, veterinary clinics and taxi stands.
Outdoor patios are permitted – located away from existing residential areas – but drive-throughs are not allowed.
The draft zoning-bylaw amendment sets new rules for setbacks and maximum building heights, dividing the mixed-use zone into four exception subzones.
Closest to 25 Sideroad, the maximum building height is four storeys, or 15 metres.
Away from 25 Sideroad, maximum height is gradually reduced to a maximum of two storeys, or 7.5 metres, at the east end.
The five homes on Lakelands would be rezoned with an exception that permits boathouses, docks and other water structures, but would not permit apartments, hotel/motels, indoor recreation centres, medical offices, pet daycares, shopping centres or taxi stands, or indoor recreation centres.
The mixed-use zoning also requires a 15-metre setback from the shoreline and specifies that at least 75 per cent of the shoreline and waterfront yard should be naturalized, which is even more stringent than the requirements spelled out in the town's shoreline planning document.
Maximum building height in the mixed-use zone is two storeys, or nine metres.
Nordstrom noted that the mixed-use zones have been "tailored... to respond to the context and vision for this section of downtown Alcona."
There are other mixed-use zones, farther west along Innisfil Beach, but they permit a maximum building height of seven storeys, and require a one-metre setback of the building, starting at the fourth storey, to reduce the impact on neighbouring residential properties.
Homeowners, especially along Lakelands, have strongly opposed the rezoning. Lakelands property owners, in particular, complained of a lack of notification, claiming they were broadsided by the information that their waterfront homes had been redesignated as commercial.
Town officials insist no expropriations are planned. Homeowners can still undertake renovations and are free to sell their homes. And even under the mixed-use zoning, residential additions are permitted at up to 50 per cent of the existing building footprint.
However, no redevelopment or building permits for new homes will be allowed in any of the areas under the interim-control bylaw.
Residents were also concerned that increased commercial activity will only add to the traffic congestion and parking issues at the adjacent Innisfil Beach Park, especially since the bylaw requires only one parking space per 40 square metres of commercial space.
While the bylaw would permit encroachment onto the public right-of-way, by patios, porches, stairs and balconies,
Nicholas Skerratt, the town's development leader, noted: “As per the town’s transportation master plan, there are no future road widenings planned for this section of Innisfil Beach Road.”
No public meeting has been scheduled at this time, but he urged residents to check the town’s website for updates.
At an information meeting held last September at the Lakeshore ideaLAB and Library, Innisfil chief administrative officer Jason Reynar spoke to residents. “None of this is written in stone. We are way, way, way far away from that point,” he said.
Nordstrom said the proposed bylaw is still in draft form to allow for further review and comment, including discussion at a future public meeting before being considered by council at a later date.
