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Lakeshore Advance, 2012-08-22, Page 9Wet n sday, September 14, 2011 i Lakethote'Advance ' 3 Lambton Shores to go forward with implementation process for Huron Woods, Beach 0' Pines issues Lynda Hillman -Ripley Lakeshore Advance After six years of discussions and negotiations - the challenging process of revolving issues in Huron Woods and Beach 0' Pines has been resolved and council agreed to go forward with the implementation process for the property and cess issues. At last week's regular council meet - both mayor Bill Weber and councilor Doug nunesteel declared a conflict as they both reside in Huron Woods and are part of the association being discussed. Honesteel felt this was a gray area but was erring on side of caution. CAO John Byrne explained the background and reasons for this issues the two neighbours were facing. In 2006 the Municipality of Lambton Shores became involved in an attempt to help resolve ongoing property and access dispute's between the Beach 0 Pines and Huron Woods Homeowners Associations, which had occurred in the two years prior to this. The dis- putes related to a variety of issues including access rights to the tow path along the Old Ausable River Channel, concerns about barricades limiting access to Emergency accesses, vehicular use of access easements, the erection of fences to define the limits of subdivisions, the location and size of accesses through these fences and a variety of other smaller issues. The issue of easement rights Wits in turn turned over t(1 the Courts to resolve resulting in what is referred to at the Templeton Decision. 'Throughout this process and adding to the problems between the t1V(► associations Were confrontational and aggressive behaviour by utni dentifie(i individuals on both sides that included tearing down of fences and other acts of vandal ism, all of Which served to damage lvhat \Vert' pre- viously good and friendly relationships between the two associations. Acting as a stakeholder anti as somewhat of a mediator, the Municipality and the two Associa- tions created a Working group of three representa- tives from each stakeholder group. This smaller group worked through the various issues begin- ning with the most important, the emergency accesses. 'i'his was resolved through the installa- tion Of new pedestrian friendly tubular plastic knock down posts and new signage. Next was addressing pedestrian access to the west side of the Old Ausuhle River Channel. This was resolved through the HOPI IA (Beach 0 Pines I lomeowners Association) granting an easement to the Munici- pality along its road to allow for the creation of u safer and Tess steep access from the road to the towpath. The working group was able to address other *nor vexations such as improving cesses through fence lines, removing extraneous ..ignage etc. In addition, the Municipality and both Associations issued some information bulle- tins to educate their memberships on the proper use of easements to the beach etc. Over time there was a general cooling of ten- sions between the two communities along with an improvement of communications as well. As this was going on, the Municipality itself wished to address a few longstanding issues between itself and the BOPI-IA, those being the return of two stranded sections of Beach 0 Pines road, that had become municipal roads due to a technicality in the Planning Act of the day that required new development, in this case 15 new homes on Huron Place, to front on a public road. Accordingly, that portion of Huron Place was designated as a "public road, even though the bal- ance of the roads in Beach 0 Pines were "private". 'The issue for the Municipality was that it owned this and a smaller portion of Huron Place that it acquired in 2009, when it was put up for sale, that it and the public had no access to. It should be noted that the BOP\ IA maintains and upgrades all of the roads within its sutxiivisdon at its cost, includ- ing the so-called "public" portions of those roads and have done so since its inception in the 1930's, Ihe Municipality does not expend any tttx dollars for this purpose even though there are portions of the mad that are "public". The second issue for the Municipality was related to the possible extension of municipal serv- ices, sanitary sewers in particular, throughout the Beach 0 Pines subdivision and while the road issue was being addressed it thought it prudent to secure a proper "utility" easement within the road system there. 'Ihe Municipality did have an ease- ment for the waterline that serves this area but it was not targe enough to accommodate a sanitary sewer if one was built. 'Ihe third issue, the Munici- pality wished to address was the creation of pedes- trian access to the Old Ausablt' River (,httnnel sim- ilar to what it had created on the west side of the river. Discussions went on between the BOPIIA and the Municipality to resolve these three issues but before formalizing that agreement it was felt that the 110100 Woods 110111eown'rs Association should be consulted about the implications of this proposed agreement, in particular the issue of returning the two "public" portion of (leach O Pines road hack the 1iO1') IA as part of their "pri- vate" road system. The 11111 IA would need lobe assured that if those two portions of Huron Place were returned to the f1(11'11A illtd the toads nude "private" that this would not compromise their deeded easements to access the beach. Accordingly, The Municipality met with the Hoard of Diec tors of the I 'WI IA early in 21)10 to review will) thein what was being proposed and to get their Input its to (tow they could he assured that their access nights would not he compromised. 'These discus- sions continued into 2011 and included a review and discussion by lawyers for all three panties (LS, 11014 IA & 11W1Irl) and eventually a "Statement of Understanding" dated August 5111 2010 was drafted outlining how the various issues were pro posed to he resolved. Most recently Mayor \Veber and Councilor Ilon- esteel attended two meetings of the f IW1 IA to dis- cuss the implications of the proposed agreement and how their access rights would he addressed, with the consensus of those meetings indicating support for the agreement and the proposed method of enshrining their access rights. In regard to the enshrinement of the easement rights, the Municipality agreed to cover the cost of registering these easement rights on title up to $10,000.00. 'Ibis gesture was deemed reasonable considering that it was the Municipality's initiative to seek the return of the "public" roads and to obtain the ease- ments for the utility corridor and towpath access. As it turns out the cost of re -registering these ease- ment rights is In the neighbourhood of $1,0000I to $2,000.00. Protection of Existing Easement Rights 'Ihe lawyers for I !WI IA and lAtnlbton Shores have agreed that a "bulk" registration of easement rights is the appropriate and least exptnslve way to rereg- ister the easement rights for 1 1W1 IA members. An authorization sheet is being cin:ulutrd to members of the association to facilitate this. 'Those residents who are not members of the IIWIIA but have deeded accesses will be approached as a sub -group to give authorization and failing that we may have to register some of those individually, again the regis- tration fee is a nominal $70.00 fee plus legal costs. Return of Road - Huron Place The Implementation of the return of those two stranded sections of Huron Place within Beach 0 Pines subdivision will require a few steps including the declaration of those portions as being surplus to the needs of the Municipal- ity, the posting and publication of notice, a hearing to deal with objec- tions, and then, if all is good, the actual legal transfer of those road portions. As for the legal costs associated with this transfer the BOPI IA, hits also agreed to cover up to $10,000.00 of those costs (which at the time of that agreement standing at $16,000.(X)). In regard to the smaller portion of Huron Place, acquired by the Municipality in 2009 at a cost of $5,477.(X), the HOPI IA has also agreed to reimburse the Municipality for those costs. 1.tability:'1he question was raised as to potential liability for the Municipality if these roads are transferred and some- one is injured or property damage is incurred. With the transfer of the road conies the transfer of liability. The ltOPI IA understands this and will sim- ply include these portions of road in their existing liability insurance cover- age. 'Ihe Municipal Solicitor for this mat- ter (Barry Scott) concurs. Assessed Value: The question was raised as to the assessed value of the por- tions of road being returned to the BOPIIA. The issue of compensation for the road was never raised throughout the negotiations, as it was understood that the road had previously been a pri- vate road and would return to that sta- tus. It had been transferred to the Munic- ipality for a nominal fee and should be returned for a nominal fee. It was also noted that the HOPI IA had maintained those sections of "public" road out of their own funds and without fund- ing assistance from the Municipality. 'Ihe Utility Easement A survey has been undertaken to define the location and limits of the proposed "utility" easement within the Beach 0 Pines subdivision. Since there is no immediate need for the "Utility Easement" at this time, this would only be pursued when and if Council under- takes 10 expand the existing municipal collection system. PIM;( PUS 41 MAIN STRUT MOOCH ONTARIO 519.3$-4371,: All You Can Eat Sunday Brunch Served from liar - 2pm11 $10.99 Includes Coffee or Juice Like your home and auto insurance. Because combining your coverage can save you money. 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