Comments - Lake Plan Values (verbatim)
Septic systems should be closely monitored and action taken to fix defective systems. That is crucial.
Septic upgrades need to be looked at closely as the older systems will eventually defgrade with the result being a degradation in water quality. Biannual inspections combined with a requirement to upgrade one's septic if it fails inspection are critical to the future of our lake.
Again certain questions are self-evident in the sense, for example, young folks should care about lake quality. The principle objective remains "clouded"; i.e. the goal of certain residences to drive lake properties to their personal view of what is satisfactory. By no means do I agree with the " lakefront must consist of natural habitat only: dogma. If the objective is to require natural front only as a part of an official binding plan, there may have to be organized resistance inclusive of court challenge.
One thing I'd like to note is that I think the lake association should have a list of recommendations for renters. As there are a few short-term rentals on the lake, I would love the "landlords" in the situation to make sure they share our values with their renters (not washing your hair in the lake with shampoo... respecting the privacy of other cottage owners and not helping yourselves to their floating docks and trampolines - yes, both of these happened last summer!! From the same cottage!). They may not understand cottage ettiquite (for example that paddling 5 feet from someone's shoreline back and forth is not really polite, getting OUT of the canoe to hunt for frogs on your property isn't acceptable, or just using someone's swim dock without asking is not really cool) or how to protect the water (we used to wash our hair in Georgian Bay as kids when we camped ... so I can see how someone may think that's a fun way to get clean! But it's so bad for the lake). This is pretty important as renters have no stake in the lake or the enjoyment of the cottage owners, but it's the owner's responsibility to teach them ettiquite and care of the lake.
While mutual courtesy and respect are important to me it is evident that this is not the case for everyone. I don’t see how the lake association can ever hope to achieve this ( sorry,) because there will always be those who only want to achieve their own ends and have disregard for their neighbours. ( Some people use their big boats responsibly and that is no problem but you will always have those boats and PWCs that run endlessly around the lake. Who is going to police that? Not the OPP for sure.
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