Committee and Council Highlights - April Special Meetings 2025

In these Council and Committee Highlights you will find a digest of featured news and updates coming out of the Special General Finance Committee and Special Planning Committee meetings that happened in April.

April Committee Highlights

Council decision-making at the Township of Muskoka Lakes typically starts at the Standing Committee level. These committees review and discuss staff reports, and make recommendations for Council who ultimately make a decision or provide direction to staff. Recommendations coming out of Standing Committees are not 'decisions' until Council 'adopts' them as a whole, which typically happens a month later at the next regular Township Council meeting. Information reports are also shared at these meetings.

These Committee Highlights provide updates coming out of the Special General Finance Committee and Special Planning Committee meetings.

Draft Asset Levels of Service Report

The Province issued O. Reg. 588/17 which requires all Ontario municipalities to complete an Asset Management Plan that includes proposed levels of service for the next 10 years (section 6) by July 1, 2025.

Staff from GHD Advisory presented the Draft Level of Service Study to Committee and they and Township Staff answered questions regarding the Study and the planned next steps.

Committee decided not to proceed with the next step of public consultation until Committee receives the capital budget implications of the target levels of service at a future General Finance Committee Meeting.

Comprehensive Zoning By-law Update

A Representative from Meridian Planning Consultants Incorporated provided an overview of the Zoning By-law Update Project and the core issues that were discussed at the Zoning By-law Steering Committee meetings to date.

Planning Committee received the report as information and agreed to provide any feedback regarding the report to the Manager of Planning by May 23, 2025 to facilitate its finalization at Planning Committee on June 12, 2025. Following that, a community consultation will occur that will include virtual stakeholder meetings and a public open house / information session.

Looking for additional information on the Committee meetings? Check out the April Agenda Packages or watch the meetings online.