To contribute to the District Municipality of Muskoka’s 5-year review of the Muskoka Official Plan, we presented this at the special District Council meeting on May 28, 2012.
The summary of our concerns are that Muskoka is world-famous for the waterfalls, natural beauty, and the shorelines.
But visitors will only come if there are waterfalls to see (not the dry rocks where the waterfalls used to be) and to touch the water (or fish or play in it). As most of Muskoka’s shorelines are private property, the publically-accessible shorelines must be protected from development or changes that would make them too dangerous to access – such as this proposed project which would:
- Make over 500′ of the only publically-accessible shoreline in the area too dangerous to access.
- Take over 94% of the water over both falls throughout most of the year.
We therefore suggest that protecting waterfalls and the natural area around them from any changes, and keeping publically-accessible shorelines available and protected be added to the Muskoka Official Plan.