BARRHEAD - A Thunder Lake property owner will not be allowed to rebuild their boathouse after the County of Barrhead municipal planning commission denied their application.
The MPC members, who are all County of Barrhead councillors, unanimously opted to deny the application on April 2, 2021.
Public municipal reserve (MR) land is a roughly 30-metre strip of municipally-owned land surrounding a lake or body of water. Its purpose is to buffer residential property and sensitive ecological areas. Most of the municipality's reserve lands are adjacent to Thunder Lake and Lac La Nonne. Administration recommended councillors deny the application.
Development officer Jenny Bruns said the Public Reserve Bylaw governs what is permissible in MR lands.
She added that the county has generally not permitted boathouses on the MR, as they often restrict access to public lands and the shoreline.
However, she said that in the mid-1960s, boathouses were often built on the county's municipal reserve lands in the early years of the Thunder Lake subdivision. Although the municipality has allowed them on rare occasions, Bruns said the county has no record of the applicant's structure ever being permitted.
She added they also consulted with Alberta Forestry and Parks as the shoreline is their responsibility.
Bruns said the province cannot authorize the rebuilding of the boathouse as it is no longer supported by the disposition process.
She added that the province would only consider the applicant's request if the structure's length was shortened by eight feet to not impact the shoreline.
Bruns said approving the application could expose the municipality to liability and litigation, as incidents may occur due to the boathouse's placement on the MR and shoreline.
"The legal, non-conforming clause is not applicable as this is a use that was never allowed under the land-use bylaw, so you cannot claim at once it had been allowed to be there," she said. "Once reconstructed beyond 75 per cent, they are also no longer considered legal non-conforming."
Bruns said the municipality's current policy is to allow landowners with buildings on the MR to maintain their existing structures, adding once they are no longer viable buildings, the municipality directs them to remove them.
Later in the meeting, she said the current boathouse was in very poor condition, and the structure would have to be replaced.
Coun. Walter Preugschas asked how far the MR was from the boathouse and how many households it served.
Bruns said that although the entire building is in the MR, she reiterated that eight feet is past the shoreline.
"They only have eight feet that is effectively useful for storage," Bruns replied, adding the applicant, the only user, was using the structure as a deck. "Should we have what is basically a storage shed on the MR? I don't think so."
Coun. Paul Properzi moved to follow administration's recommendation and deny the application.
In recent years, neighbouring landowners using the public or municipal reserves as extensions of their personal property has been a contentious issue in the county.
Following multiple complaints in the spring of 2019, county staff and a municipal community peace officer toured the public municipal reserve lands around Thunder Lake, finding more than 400 violations of its Public Reserves Bylaw.
Later that summer, the county hosted a standing-room-only information session about the Public Reserves Bylaw at Lightning Bay Community Hall. They also elicited residents' input on what they would like to see included in future renditions of the bylaw and as part of a lake management plan.
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