An information package should have been sent to all those affected. (Town of La Ronge)

By Derek Cornet

Leases and permits

Shoreline Use and Development Policy expected to be adopted next month

Aug 20, 2019 | 5:00 PM

La Ronge Council is developing a Shoreline Use and Development Policy to provide a consistent and predictable way of managing leases and permits along the lake.

“That’s one of the biggest intents of this is to remove some of the red tape that did exist before,” said Community Planner Abby Besharah. “This has been quite a few months in the process. In the New Year would have been when we started looking at this. It was around the time we would typically go around and invoice folks for their shoreline leases. Through that review, we realized there wasn’t a consistent process.”

The policy, which council plans on adopting at its next regular meeting Sept. 11, targets a number of residences and businesses in La Ronge. Currently, Besharah noted there are 12-18 leases in place, but there are likely double the amount of instances where a lease is needed and hasn’t been issued. She added there could be other cases where residents have a lease, but only require a permit for their dock, while others with a dock might not have a permit at all.

An information package should have been sent in the mail to anyone affected by the new policy. The package includes insight into the development of the policy, as well as a draft of it for review. In preparation for the policy, one-on-one consultation with a selection of lakeview properties has already taken place and their input was included while drafting it.

“There are going to be one of two cases where either they have a lease already and they have been paying an annual fee for that lease. That lease will now be gone, and they will just have to get a permit if they have a dock,” Besharah said. “The other case is where people have had docks on that municipal land and hadn’t had a permit previously or a lease, they are going to have to get a permit.”

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Previous to the policy, shoreline development was guided through the Official Community Plan and regulations in the zoning bylaw. For decades, the town entered into shoreline leases with lakeview landowners and other residents who required access to the shoreline. The shoreline leases that the town issued did not follow any clear criteria to assess where they would or would not be issued, and upon review, there were some properties with leases and others without with no clear difference between them.

Anyone with questions about the Shoreline Use and Development Policy or have concerns about how they might be affected are encouraged to contact Besharah at the town office. Information on the policy can also be found online here.

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno