Muskoka residents are voicing concerns about a new development slated for the shores of Lake Muskoka.
On May 27, Zeidler Architecture and Cliff Bay Resorts and Residences hosted a Zoom meeting to show the public their plans for the Muskoka Centre property.
Previously a sanitorium, the Muskoka Centre lies just north of Gravenhurst, Ont., on a peninsula that juts out into Cliff Bay. The provincially owned building has been abandoned since the 1990s.
The development team plans to transform the 81 acres of land into a tourist resort replete with two luxury hotels, multi-unit residences, two restaurants, a spa, space for a public park, other retail and food services, and a marina worth of docks.
The Zoom meeting, however, which was intended as a goodwill gesture to get residents excited about the development, did not go as planned.
The meeting started at 7 p.m. and had a 100-person limit. The limit was reached before the meeting even started. Due to the lack of space, the facilitator, Zeidler Architecture, was unable to access the meeting. Instead, Kirill Soloviev, the CEO of Cliff Bay Resorts and Residences, which is owned by KS Group, and Bob List, his local planning expert, were left to quell a frustrated crowd.
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The meeting lasted approximately 30 minutes with organizers apologizing and discussing the idea of rescheduling. Residents were not impressed, with some questioning the companies’ ability to plan a development if they couldn’t plan a meeting. In the end, organizers said they would reschedule at some point in June or July with a larger meeting.
Since then, cottage owner Bruce Parlette has started an online petition to block the proposal, describing it as an “over-development” that “threatens to irrevocably alter the character of this cherished area and poses significant risks to our environment.” So far, the petition has received 764 signatures.
What makes this development different from others is that the Town of Gravenhurst has no say over the proposal. Since the Muskoka Centre is provincially owned, Infrastructure Ontario (IO) is responsible for the sale. The IO placed the Muskoka Centre on the market in December 2020.
Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack has drafted a Minister’s Zoning Order (MZO) to sell the land to Cliff Bay Resorts and Residences. An MZO overrides municipal planning bylaws, allowing developers to build structures generally not allowed in the area.
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The property is currently zoned as institutional, but the MZO would convert it to mostly commercial with some residential zoning. On top of purchasing the property from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the developers will also purchase Crown lakebed land around the Cliff Bay area from the Ministry of Natural Resources. This would allow the developers to build structures over the lake’s surface such as a pier with a restaurant.
The provincial government has yet to issue the MZO. According to the developers, the province will first require public feedback on the proposed MZO, as well as the Town of Gravenhurst to consider a resolution respecting the proposed MZO.
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