ATHABASCA – A hearing over a local campground’s status took an unexpected turn after 146 letters were submitted to be read into the record during the July 27 meeting.
Athabasca County chambers were filled with more than 30 people during the six-hour meeting that ended with councillors voting 8-0 to defer further action until their next council meeting, currently scheduled for Aug. 31.
“We felt that it was best to table the topic and take the time to reflect and engage in a thorough discussion when everyone is rested and ready,” said reeve Brian Hall in a July 28 interview.
The campground, located on the southeast corner of Skeleton Lake just north of the Summer Village of Bondiss, applied to be re-zoned to become compliant with the county’s land-use bylaw, which changed in 2021. Currently, the campground is zoned as commercial recreational, but to be compliant, it would need to change to the designated campground classification.
Six people spoke at the hearing, including the owner of the campground James “Jim” Brown and his legal counsel Roberto Noce. While the crowd remained amicable, one participant interrupted Noce during his concluding speech, angry that the five-minute time limit didn’t apply to the owners of the property. Meanwhile, many of the letters contained inconsistent information; for example, some referenced the construction of 36 additional stalls, which wasn’t listed anywhere in the supporting document.
“We all feel extremely strongly that the lake is already at the maximum for eco-capacity,” read a letter submitted by Jeff and Jackie Hebner. “Thirty-six additional stalls would change the visual and eco diversity of the lake; three years ago, we had pelicans nesting near that site; now they’re gone, since these aren’t birds that like traffic around them.”
The campground in question is more of a private camp, according to Brown, who says the site has never fit well into the county’s categories; while it does have RV sites, they’re more permanent placements. Many of the residents spend their whole summer out there, and the sites aren’t open to the public.
“I’ve invited the whole Bondiss council out, or really anyone that wanted to come see it,” said Brown in an Aug. 3 interview. “No one will come and look at it, which really irks me. Most the complaints were just parroting what they were told to say.”
Some of those complaints included water quantity and quality, access to the Skeleton Lake Golf Course, and increased traffic.
“There’re only three county roads that come into the summer village, and it goes down to one along the north side of the lake. There’re about 50 to 60 residents in there and if there’s a forest fire, there’s no way out,” said Lawrence Habiak, a member of Bondiss’ three-person council.
“Right now, Bondiss is working with the Boyle Fire Department to get an emergency response plan in place, it’s something that we need to work on for sure,” replied Habiak after a question from Coun. Tracy Holland. “There’s a lot of solutions, or possible solutions, it’s just a matter of figuring out what they are.”
Habiak also faced questions about the position that the summer village took on development within its own borders; Bondiss had issued new development permits in 2022 and 2023, including residential additions to existing buildings.
“You’ve spoken out against this bylaw, can you clarify for us if you speak out against development in the summer village with the same fervor,” asked Hall, noting that there was a “lot of development going on.”
“Most of the development is replacing homes where they’ve been there for 40 or 50 years. I agree, we have our problems with people developing and we do try to discourage some of it, but unfortunately, we are in the same problem or boat as you guys. There are only certain things we can do, and there are only certain things you can do,” said Habiak.
Not only opposition
While most of the letters and speakers were opposed to the development, there was one speaker — besides the property owner and his legal counsel — who spoke in favour of the application. Rick Tiedemann said he had been out at Skeleton Lake for 64 years and had been a founding member of the original Skeleton Lake Stewardship Association (SLSA).
“I probably know the watershed better than anyone else, other than my partner Peter; we spend a couple hours every day moving water through the watershed to maximize the flow into the lake, to try and improve the water quantity,” said Tiedemann. “Looking at quality, this year we definitely bloomed a little earlier than previous years but looking at the water chemistry it’s not different than what we have seen previously.
"It’s interesting, a lot of the letters that were read today. I’ve been out there so long that I know a lot of these people. What I really found interesting was the hypocrisy because many of those people who wrote these letters talking about the environmental concerns are the ones fertilizing their lawns, destroying these riparian areas and some of them have even had Bobcats on the environmental reserves in front of their houses. I sit there and just go, ‘Come on people.’”
A lawyer’s take
Noce, from Miller Thompson LLP, brought up one the clearer points of the evening; if everyone was so worried about new development, they should be glad that the land is getting re-zoned to a campground district instead commercial recreational.
“Given the number of concerns that were raised by the residents today, and the numerous letters, there is a real concern with overdevelopment. When you look at the current zoning for C4 (residential), there are 19 permitted uses for that site. They can build a hotel or motel, restaurants, guest ranches, a bed and breakfast establishment, and if it meets the specifications and they comply with the regulations, it would be issued by right, and no one would have a say in it,” said Noce. “If this doesn’t happen, those 19 possible permitted uses are open to the landowner, and anyone adjacent to it won’t have any say.”
Brown is hoping that the application gets approved, noting that it’s something that they were told to do by the county.
“It’s in their hands at this point. It is what it is, and we’re just trying to move forwards from here. If they close me down, I’ll be so much further ahead financially; we just want things to settle down and get back to normal, but we certainly aren’t planning on putting in any more campsites,” said Brown.
