Short-term rental owners in Haliburton County, Ont. could be prevented from operating if their cottages are built on shoreline road allowances, according to a proposed short-term rental bylaw.
During a Haliburton county council meeting on November 22, Steve Stone, the director of planning, addressed questions about the proposed bylaw. One of those questions was whether short-term rental properties built on municipally owned shoreline road allowances would be allowed to operate.
“We added a new prohibitive clause within the bylaw that would exclude any buildings that were located on municipally owned shoreline road allowances from use in a short-term rental operation,” Stone responded.
A shoreline road allowance is a 20-metre strip of land between a cottage and the banks of a lake or river. Crown land surveyors created these land allowances back in the 19th century for commercial activities, such as logging and transportation of goods. When cottagers started buying plots of land in Haliburton County around 1930, the shoreline road allowances remained municipally owned. It’s only in the last 10 years that Haliburton County municipalities have started selling shoreline road allowances to property owners. This allows property owners to make changes to the land, such as building a dock or patio, expanding their cottage, or updating their septic system, without an added layer of municipal approval.
When Stone mentioned the new prohibitive clause, Coun. Bob Carter, who’s also the mayor of Minden Hills, was quick to raise concerns. “We don’t know how many short-term rentals we have, but there could easily be hundreds affected by this rule,” he said. “At the date of passing, you’re going to say there are hundreds of short-term rental accommodations that are now prohibited? We process eight to ten shoreline road allowance purchases at every meeting. Our planning department can only process so many of them. If all of a sudden, a hundred or two hundred people are going to have prohibitions put on them, we’re not going to be able to react to sell them the shoreline road allowances even if we wanted to.”
The rule would only apply to structures that are built on municipally-owned shoreline road allowances. If the short-term rental doesn’t sit on the shoreline road allowance or the property owner bought the shoreline road allowance from the municipality then they’re free to continue operating.
When asked over the phone why operating a short-term rental on a municipally owned shoreline road allowance would be a problem, Carter said: “If you wanted to put up a lemonade stand and you decided to put it on your neighbour’s lawn instead of yours, your neighbour may be concerned about that. It’s the same with the shoreline road allowances. It’s municipal land. You’re not going to build a business on it.”
Carter reiterated his concern that if this wasn’t addressed the municipalities would become inundated with shoreline road allowance purchases, slowing down other building and planning requests. Plus, there’s always the chance that property owners could take the municipalities to court over the use of the land.
During the November 22 meeting, Coun. Cecil Ryall proposed a possible solution. As part of the new short-term rental bylaw, operators will have to sign an affidavit swearing to perform adequate maintenance and upkeep on their properties. Ryall suggested that as part of the affidavit, operators whose rental is built on a shoreline road allowance would also have to swear that they will purchase the shoreline road allowance at some point in the future. “If for some reason, based on our rules of engagement, they cannot buy it then that rental is rescinded,” Ryall said.
Stone agreed that under the bylaw, each municipality could use a good faith approach like this if they wanted.
The matter was left unresolved, but the Haliburton County Council did approve the short-term rental bylaw draft. The draft has since been passed on to the municipalities of Algonquin Highlands, Dysart et al, Highlands East, and Minden Hills for licensing and regulation.
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