PARTIAL REPORT ON COUNCIL

March 11, 2002

Four members of Council present. Councillor Pierre Paul Maurice away on holiday.

PRESENTATION BY RUSTY RUSSELL RE GOESSMAN LOTS (CROWN RESERVATIONS):

Council gave first and second reading to by-law 02-027ã"Being a by-law to accept the dedication of certain Crown "Reservations" designated as "Road Allowances" in the Letters Patent of Crown Grants in 1823, to John Goessman, Deputy Surveyor, in certain Broken Township Lots lying along the shores of Georgian Bay in the Township of Tiny." In other words the Township is preparing to accept from the Province certain Crown Reservations on 9 lots scattered along the shore of Tinyãbut it has not done so yet.

This move is being made as a result of work by the Township's surveyor David Lambden.

In his presentation, Rusty Russell, a solicitor employed by the Township of Tiny, explained that Goessman surveyed Tiny Township and that in 1823 he was paid for his work in land ≠ nine blocks of it, scattered along Tiny's shores and now subdivided into several hundred individual lots. The patents for this land (a patent is the word used when the Crown transfers land to the first private owner) had on them the wording "reserving one chain in width as an allowance for Road with free access to the Beach by all vessels, boats & persons." Mr. Russell said that a chain is 66' long (indeed he brought along an old surveyor's chain to show everyone in the audience). The 66' strip extends inland from wherever the water's edge was in 1823 on each of the 9 affected lots.

At the moment noone knows where the 66' strips are. Was the water level significantly lower in 1823 than it is now, as some think? If so, the 66' or part of it is under water. Was the water level significantly higher than it is now? If so, the 66' could run right through strings of cottages. Professor Lambden is looking into historical data on water levels and will eventually determine the location of the strips. Russell did not address the issue of what such a reservation means to the owners of affected lots. Obviously a road allowance is not a park. What does a road allowance mean in relation to boats and vessels and persons? Just what is being transferred?

Over the years some of these Crown Reservations have been forgiven. Unfortunately good records have not been kept by the Ministry of Natural Resources, though, according to Rusty Russell, the MNR has a list of at least some of the owners in Tiny for whom Reservations were lifted. The individual landowners in the 9 affected areas have been asked to search their records to ascertain whether they have evidence to show that the reservation has been lifted on their lots sometime in the past century or so. If evidence can be produced, then the "reservation" will not be accepted by the Township on that particular individual's lot. [It would be a help if the list the MNR has could be made accessible to the affected landowners who might recognize the name of a previous owner. Apparently, the lifting of a reservation may or may not have been recorded in the registry office in Barrie so title searches won't yield definitive answers, though they might yield some answers.]

The affected lots are

Lot 18 in Concession 7 ≠ Mountainview Beach

Lot 18 in Concession 10 ≠ the Finley plan north of Balm

Lot 23 in Concession 16 ≠ a short stretch just north of Lafontaine Park

Lot 14 in Concession 18 ≠ part of Thunder Beach

Lot 2 in Concession 20 ≠ a bit of Kettles and part of Awenda

Lots F and G in Concession 19 ≠ Crescentwood Beach and the Adams Point area

Lot E in Concession 16 ≠ part of Coutnac

Lot 2 in Concession 16 ≠ Toanche?

Asked whether affected landowners could read the report by David Lambden on the matter of the Goessman lots, Council said that there was no such report.