FOCA Friday #7 by Eleanor Young

Some people will be shocked to learn how little actual legal control property owners may hold over their waterfront in Ontario. Cast your mind back to the late 1800s. Surveyors laying out townships across Ontario left a 20-metre (66-foot) shore road allowance (SRA) around the edge of most lakes. You know, just in case that spot, in the middle of nowhere, might someday become a major commercial hub for shipping, logging or who-knows-what. Today, the SRAs are either owned by the municipality or are Crown land controlled by the Province, or some combination of the two.

And essentially that means that, if you haven't explicitly purchased the SRA land, you have access to the water's edge near your property, but technically, so does the general public. It also means your near shore improvements - docks, boathouses and the like, and perhaps even all or part of your cottage (!) - may be built on land that you do not actually own.

FOCA recently helped ensure small docks and boathouses do not require provincial permits under the Public Lands Act (foca.on.ca/docks-boathouses/), and continue to advocate on behalf of cottagers for reasonable provincial permitting and regulatory requirements.

Beyond that, here in the Township of Lake of Bays, most SRAs are owned by the Township, and there are two approaches to clarifying the situation: purchase the land, or apply for an Encroachment Agreement (https://www.lakeofbays.on.ca/.../sale-of-municipal-land.aspx). According to TTCB neighbours who have undertaken the purchase option, you can expect the process to involve 10s of thousands of dollars and years of back-and-forth with surveyors, lawyers, Township staff, and in some cases other levels of government. But the upside is you can ensure greater certainty around longterm access and control of your waterfront, and increase the resale value of your property.

https://foca.on.ca/docks-boathouses/?fbclid=IwAR25I3kqbNGdYHXYh_Q7uXNkk_P3NKCvDyrIL8uAXKFA2ZtgJTnG0qWY1wA