BICA Zoning Concerns Addressed

On November 6 the NEMI town council voted in favour of changes to the zoning by-law plans. 

For Ward 1 there were two contentious items which BICA worked hard on to bring to the attention of the councillors. With Councillor Laurie Cook’s persistence, her motion passed 5 to 4.  Following are the two concerns and accomplishments:

1. Crown land will retain its designation as ‘hazard’ land. In the plan it will be labelled as Open Space (OS 2).  This is instead of the proposed label of shoreline residential and rural. This was a huge accomplishment. Along with the hired consultants, the town has cross-referenced all Crown land with tax roll numbers to ensure all Crown land is designated properly. They have produced accurate maps of what we know as Crown Land which they have made available to us. 
2. All private property with the designation of SR will now be labelled shoreline residential ‘islands’ (SR 1). This is a designation which is distinct to our part of NEMI where the rest of NEMI is labelled shoreline residential (SR). We are happy that the councillors have recognized our distinct and different geological characteristics from the rest of the Manitoulin district. We await more specific details about what this will mean exactly, but we at least have retained the existing zoning as it was previously. We expect that there will be more attention put on wetlands and NEMI will undertake mapping of significant wetlands over the next few years so this will be the next opportunity for BICA to provide input.  As more information from NEMI is available, we will share this with our membership. Thank you to Laurie for keeping our concerns at the forefront at council meetings!! 

Below is a news article from the Manitoulin Expositor regarding the zoning changes.
https://www.manitoulin.ca/northeast-town-council-passes-comprehensive-zoning-bylaw/