KAWARTHA LAKES-A planning company working with The Old Dog Brewing Company in Bobcaygeon is frustrated by delays at City Hall. “The delays lay squarely on the part of some of the commenting departments who seemingly have problems with timelines,” Darryl Tighe, Director of Planning with Landmark Associates Limited in Peterborough told Kawartha 411. “They don’t seem to recognize the essence of timelines.”
Tighe is one of the planners working for the Old Dog Brewery in Bobcaygeon. They had applied for an amendment to the zoning bylaw last August. There was no Planning Committee meeting in October and then the application was pushed out of the November agenda due to a heavy schedule.
Today, staff recommended sending it back to staff for comment, which the planners for Old Dog pointed out they already had months to provide. “We are dismayed that the review comments remain outstanding at this point after such a lengthy time period, Landmark officials stated. “We do believe comments more related to sight plan approval rather than the zoing bylaw itself.”
Councillor Junkin questioned whether the project had enough entrances. Staff explained the requirements. “What’s proposed would currently have three entrances, one of the things we would like to see, in terms of the configuration of the site is that the accessible space be turned be turned 90 degrees, to the east so that it can be accesssed from the driveway here.”(in front of the building) Junkin also had concerns about the loading zone. Staff explained it is within the guiidelines, but could create a sight issue.
Craft Breweries can also create alot of waste water. Old Dog Owner Scott Nichol explained how he plans to deal with it. “We are looking at two companies to pre-treat the waste water so it would be brought down as close to municipal current levels as possible, back into the system,” Nichol said. Â “I will be doing side streaming, pulling off all the spent grains as well and donating that to, ideally a pig farmer because pigs can eat anything.”
The Mayor questioned the Old Dog planners assertion that there has been delays in the process. “Folks are saying they are disappointed there’s going to be a further delay for zoning and I guess what I’m asking is if you can enlighten me, what is actually being delayed by sending this back to staff, I mean, if we approve the re-zoning here today you still have many issues, site plan, to be dealt with through site plan before any of this work can be done.” Mayor Letham said. “Im not seeing the delays”
Staff concluded sending the issue back to staff today would not result in any further delays. Landmark officials countered that it is previous delays that are concerning. “Certainly I’m not necessarily saying the timeline is not correct at this point, our concern is the initial delays that we have experienced.”
Councillor Kathleen Seymour Fagan is not on the Planning Committee but stood and spoke in support of the application.
The Mayor said the City is committed to the project. ” I would like to assure you and your client that this is a very valuable project to the whole community and I think there’s nobody that I’ve talked to that isn’t looking forward to making this happen. I don’t think anybody here is trying to delay things or put things off.”
Landmarks Darryl Tighe told Kawartha 411 they have never experinced delays like this with other municipalities, including Peterborough.
Mayor Andy Letham took issue with this and emailed this comment Thursday. It reads in part:
“Darryl Tighe’s comment about delays are unwarranted. Our municipality, like any other, has a process to follow that considers the safety and interests of the public, neighbouring businesses and residents who will be affected by any new business or development. There are a long line of applicants before Mr. Tighe, and to suggest that he should jump the queue, or that staff are not working fast enough is unfair. To the contrary, our staff are working extremely hard to process almost double the applications for large developments received in 2017 over 2016. The Planning Advisory Task Force recommended that we hire additional staff, and I’m happy to report that this will take place January 2, 2018 and should result in even faster turnaround times.”
Old Dog Brewing Company had hoped to be open by Christmas that has now been delayed until Summer at the earliest. Click here for more on Old Dog:Â https://www.kawartha411.ca/2017/07/12/craft-brewery-craze-coming-to-kawartha-lakes/
