I am writing to express…

I am writing to express concern over the misleading information being provided about who will assume the ownership, operation, and responsibility for the long-term of water and wastewater treatment services of the Eagles Rest development.

There are inconsistencies in the information provided on this application, the Staff Reports and Pre-Servicing agreements between the property owners and the Township of Oro-Medonte and the property owner's own website.

This application is an “Approval Application (Private Sewage Works)” The application also states that “Proposed development concepts include 208 residential units on private water supply wells” but the Staff Reports and subsequent Pre-Servicing Agreements with the township of Oro-Medonte assume it will be municipal water and wastewater servicing. Links to the Staff Reports and Pre-Servicing agreements with the Township of Oro-Medonte are attached.

Item 8.5 of this application about the Municipality Agreement states:
"The property owner is in the process of preparing an agreement with the municipality concerning this property and will be forwarded to the Ministry as part if the ECA submission."

The property owner already has Pre-Servicing agreements that were passed by the council of the day, These agreements were passed as By-laws in Open Session with the full knowledge of the constituents and to date there appears to be no documentation to prove these are not still the binding agreements.

Eagles Rest advertising website, http://www.eaglesrest-barrie.ca/ is advertising that the 208 homes would be on "municipal water and municipal sewage." The same owner states on their application they will be serviced by private sewage and private wells.

The township of Oro-Medonte staff have received questions, from the public, about the inconsistencies between this application, the website, and the pre-servicing agreements. The only statement received to date states "what is being proposed is a municipally owned and operated communal water system (Township water) and a privately owned and operated communal sanitary sewage disposal system (no individual septic systems on each lot)." This is inconsistent with the Staff Reports and subsequent Pre-Servicing agreements, the information on the property owner’s website and this application.

It is my opinion that this proposal should not be approved until the township and the developer come to an agreement and inform the constituents of whether these services will be privately owned and operated or publicly owned and operated. The public also needs to be informed about township’s role if it is private.
This includes knowing if there is a role in:
• The administration/collection of resident billings for private sewage servicing. This arrangement is already in place with another private owner of sewage treatment plant servicing many homes in the Horseshoe Valley area and is the cause of much concern for many of these residents.
• Accepting the responsibility and having to assume this privately owned system if the owner cannot maintain the system in the long-term.

Once the township has assumed the other infrastructure in this development such as roads, streetlights and storm water ponds who will own and more importantly operate the water/ wastewater systems 25 years from now?

My second concern is:
Item 8.2 Environmental Assessment states:
“This application represents a private sewage works approval and as such does not require an environmental assessment.”
Why are private systems that will be private and service over 300 homes not have to go through an Environmental Assessment?