The initial draft/potential/possible plan provided for the power station building was as shown below (click on any of these images for a larger view):
While ugly and just waiting for the grafitti to appear some night, it is a realistic view of the size and shape of some of what the station would need to have: ventilation louvres, fencing, concrete, a huge concrete rectangle as the view from the Moon River – and it would dominate the panorama as you look across the falls from the picnic area on the north side.
Then the developer thought that by piling rocks up the side we would think the entire power station was buried, and they provided this fantasy-land rendering:
They seem to have now agreed this was completely not to scale and omitted some important details.
So this next rendering was provided. They now seem to agree that even Muskoka trees are not going to grow out of the concrete top, and a fence will be required along the side so people don’t fall down the 15′ of rocks piled steeply up the side of the station (hey, how did they “forget” to include the required downstream safety boom):
While pleasing to look at, this rendering is still fraudulently deceptive; it is completely not to scale (compare it to the top image, which is real-world), makes it look like the rocks piled up the side of the concrete bunker are Muskoka bedrock, neglects to show the 50′-wide water intake upstream. So look at the next image…
As you can see from our marked-up image below, their most-recent rendering is still more wishful thinking than reality. Please click on the image to review some of the omissions for yourself:
Is the company salivating over the possibility of grabbing the municipal property so they can maximize their profits? Council ought to require the company go through an individual EA process and show the community its final designs for the crown lands. If they are successful at obtaining all approvals and if the voters decide that it would be better to offer the company the Municipal Lands then and only then should we agree to give over the municipal lands.
When are we going to elect better people to the Township of Muskoka Lakes council? You would think with the MLA sticking it’s nose into our politics they would make the politicians be more mindful of the natural view, but they are lost in Government World. Just look at their fire Department – they bought a 70,000.00 fireboat and didn’t measure the boathouse beforehand, so they have to spend 100,000.00 to build a new boathouse. In any world but Government World, Sawkins the fire chief would be looking for a new job and Muskoka Lakes would be looking for a new fire chief.
And now, in their “wisdom”, they have allowed the desecration of one of Muskoka’s most beautiful locations. You may have to go out of Muskoka to Queen’s Park to get the help you need. Where is Norm Miller on this? Thank you for your efforts and please keep up the good work!