SECTION 2 NATURAL FEATURES IN THE TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE

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1 SECTION 2 NATURAL FEATURES IN THE TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE 2.1 Introduction The Town of Penetanguishene has been blessed with an exceptional natural setting. The importance of this special place is recognized in Council s Vision Statement, VISION 2031 and the Basis of the Official Plan, as follows: The Town of Penetanguishene is located on a very beautiful natural site on Penetang Harbour and Severn Sound. The shoreline is a prime asset and there are scenic views of the harbour from various vantage points. The waterfront area is the focus of the Town s recreational system and its major tourist attraction. The Plan seeks to foster a pattern of development which will take advantage of this beautiful location by designs which are in harmony with the features of the site and which protect natural amenities 1 Interviews with the community and the vision sessions have revealed the strong emotional connection that residents feel to the Town s environmental features, such as the Harbour, the rolling hills, views and the urban forests. In addition to the emotional connection, living in close proximity to nature may be health promoting as well for the Town s residents. Research on the effects of nature and health suggest that people who live in or near parks and other green spaces experience statistically fewer health problems than people with little or no access to the natural environment 2 Residents have expressed concerns that the design of some development in the Town has not fully complimented the Town s special natural setting. For example, some residents consider the new residential buildings on the waterfront, east of the Town Dock, are not as attractive as this premier location warrants. How will the Town protect its unique assets, the waterfront, urban forests and views when development occurs? Our interviews with local residents, builders and developers have revealed that some Official Plan policies do not appear to be working well in this regard. While the Official Plan states the Plan seeks to foster a pattern of development which will take advantage of this beautiful location in practical terms the translation from policy to reality has not been fully achieved. Official Plan policies that restrict new 1 Town of Penetanguishene, Official Plan, Policy Carolyn Woodland, MCIP, RPP, Toronto and Regional Conservation Authority, The Urban Watershed, Moving to a Living City, Presentation to the Lifestyle 2007 Blue Skies Planning, OPPI Conference. TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 40

2 development, because of obstructing views from higher ground are considered rigid. What is not working? This Section and the accompanying maps at the end of this BACKGROUND REPORT provide an overview of the natural features and issues related to natural features in the Town. 2.2 Urban design guidelines needed The four-pillar sustainable development model, outlined in Section 1, advises that the economy, the environment, social equity and culture are all connected. Design guidelines would address all four aspects of sustainable development. The guidelines could help protect natural features, provide a harmonious balance that would permit the community at large to enjoy both the natural feature and the development design, and the local economy would benefit by attractive development. Guidelines could suggest principles for development along the waterfront, on lands affected by slopes, and near or in the urban forest. They could identify important public views and how these views should be protected. Urban design guidelines could also apply to intensification projects and infill development to help integrate new building harmoniously within the existing fabric of development. While the Official Plan has had motherhood statements about fostering good design, the Town has lacked the tools to translate these concepts into reality. Urban design guidelines would provide an additional tool to encourage attractive development in the Town. RECOMMENDATION # 2.1 (Urban Design Guidelines) The Town should prepare and adopt URBAN DESIGN GUIDELINES that will identify significant public views and assist in achieving design for new development that is harmonious with natural features and the existing pattern of development. The Town is also implementing other tools, such as a Site Alteration By-law under the Municipal Act, to help protect wooded sites prior to development. 2.3 Penetang Harbour The Town s setting on Penetang Harbour provides impressive views from the hills over the Harbour and also from the water. In the summer months the Harbour is the scene of considerable boating activity associated with the marinas along the shoreline in the Town. Early industrial development and other factors had a deleterious impact on the water quality of the Harbour. However, in recent years the Town has participated in the Severn Sound Remedial Action Plan (RAP) for cleaning up the Harbour. Water quality in Penetang Harbour has improved to the extent that the Harbour and the rest of Severn TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 41

3 Sound have been taken off the Hot Spot list of damaged Great Lakes environmental areas. The RAP also established phosphorous loading targets for Penetang Harbour which the Town meets in the Certificate of Approval for its sewage treatment plants. The Severn Sound Environmental Association is conducting ongoing studies of the Harbour, including fish habitat, sediment and open water quality. Much of the shoreline has high and medium suitability for fish habitat. 3 Penetang Harbour is presently Federally owned. It is possible that the Harbour may be divested to the Town in future and the Town would then be responsible for the bed of the Harbour. 2.4 Topography and Soils The Town of Penetanguishene was aptly named by the Ojibwa as the place of white rolling sand 4 The Town lies within the Simcoe Uplands Physiographic Region. This area of the province consists of a core of sandy glacial till hills that have been overlain with mainly sandy glaciolacustrine materials deposited by glacial lakes Algonquin and Nipissing. The topographic relief between the valleys, the level of Georgian Bay and the hilltops reaches some 60m in elevation producing a majestic landscape 5 Map 1 Natural features and hazards shows the areas in the Town subject to moderate to steep slope areas. In its Natural Heritage and Hazard Land Study for the Town of Penetanguishene, Gartner Lee Limited has advised that development on the steeper sections of these slopes could result in disturbance of natural environmental functions, especially where groundwater seepage emanates from them. When natural vegetation is removed from these slopes, particularly given that they are composed of sand and gravels, there is also an increased threat of erosion and possibly slope stability issues 6 Map 1 illustrates the steeper sloped lands in the Town. The steepest slope areas are within the County forest in the southwest corner of the Town. Within the urban area there are areas of steeper sloped lands in the vicinity of Church and Poyntz Streets. As shown on Map 4 these areas are also designated for residential development, and are either vacant or underdeveloped. Since development on steep slopes is a concern in the Town, these areas should be excluded from the calculation of lands potentially available for future development. RECOMMENDATION # 2.2 (Steeply sloped lands) Lands within the Town that are steeply sloped and designated for residential development should be excluded from the calculation of the land inventory for future development, due to erosion and slope stability concerns. 3 Gartner Lee Limited, Natural Heritage and Hazard Land Study: Town of Penetanguishene (December, 2001) Figure As above, page As above, page 13. TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 42

4 The highest elevations in the Town are over 60 metres (200 ft.) above the Harbour, in the vicinity of the Town reservoir off Payette Drive, the Public Works yard and the western portion of the Town Industrial Park on Robert St. E. Local soils are mostly sandy loam and loamy sand soils that developed on the sand plains left behind from the glacial lake beds. 7 As well as being prone to erosion, these sandy soils are a potential concern for groundwater quality as contaminants can migrate through such soils into the municipal wellfields. Map 1 illustrates the extent of wellhead protection zones. Much of the urban area of the Town is within these zones, due to the porosity of local soils. 2.5 Groundwater The North Simcoe Groundwater Study 8 was completed in The study objectives were to: 1. Delineate local aquifers; 2. Identify risks to groundwater quality and quantity; 3. Complete Wellhead Protection Area delineation (WHPAs) for all municipal water supplies; and, 4. Provide planning tools for protecting and managing groundwater. The Study concluded that: Overall, the municipal water supplies in the Town of Penetanguishene are not well protected from surface contamination. Elevated chloride at the Payette system and the TCE contamination at the Robert Street wellfield indicate that the aquifers in these areas are vulnerable to contamination, even though they are quite deep 9 Map 1 of this BACKGROUND REPORT shows the proposed 50 day and 2, 10 and 25 year capture zones for contaminants which could impact the existing Town wells by entering the groundwater through spills, inappropriate land uses, etc. The Town has three wellfields. The Payette Drive wellfield presently serves most of the Town. The LePage subdivision off Champlain Rd. has its own stand alone well system. The Robert St. W. wellfield became contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and was taken out of service in The Town intends to bring this wellfield back on line is discussed in Section 6 of the BACKGROUND REPORT. Most properties in the rural areas of the Town are on individual private wells. As an outcome of the Walkerton municipal wellfield contamination, the Province passed the Ontario Clean Water Act in This Act requires that every watershed in Ontario prepare Source Protection Plans that are supported by full technical studies, in order to 7 Chapman & Putnam Physiography of Southern Ontario, Soil Survey of Simcoe County 8 Golder Associates, North Simcoe Groundwater Study (May, 2005). 9 As above, Appendix G, page 50. TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 43

5 protect municipal water supplies. Penetanguishene lies within the Severn Sound Source Protection Authority, one of three bodies within the overall South Georgian Bay - Lake Simcoe Source Protection Region. The Source Protection Plan for this region will establish policies for activities and land use planning decisions will have to be in conformity with the Source Protection Plan, and the greatest protection for drinking water prevails in the event of any conflict between the Clean Water Act and other provincial plans. In the interim while the Source Protection Plan is being prepared, the Town should update its Official around wellheads. It is expected that this Plan will be completed by All future planning Plan to include the most current wellhead protection capture zones and related groundwater protection policies. The design of any future development or redevelopment projects should conform to these groundwater protection policies. RECOMMENDATION # 2.3 (Municipal wellhead protection) Because the Town s municipal aquifers appear to be vulnerable to contamination, the Town should update its Official Plan to include the most current wellhead protection capture zones and related groundwater protection policies. 2.6 Flooding There is a flood prone area at the mouth of the Copeland Creek up to an elevation of 180 metres CGD, as shown on Map 1. This coincides to a considerable extent with the limits of the Penetang Marsh. The Environmental Protection One (EP1) designation in the Official Plan prohibits development in this area. The current 100 year flood elevation limit for the Town is an elevation of 178 metres CGD. The former Ojibwa Landing campground was subject to periodic flooding. 2.7 Wetlands Map 1 also identifies the wetland areas in the Town. Wetlands are extremely important elements of the natural environment. They contribute to the overall physical and biological diversity and productivity of the landscape. They perform very important hydrological functions, such as flow attenuation, erosion control and groundwater discharge. Wetlands provide critical habitat for wildlife with specialized life history requirements (e.g., amphibians). They support a wide array of significant attributes, such as rare species of plants and animals and unique vegetation associations. Wetlands are also recognized as fulfilling a vital social function, whether as a passive recreational area, the subject of scientific research, or in terms of its exploitable natural resources (e.g., timber, fish, furbearers, etc.) Gartner Lee Limited, as above, page 20 TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 44

6 Penetang Marsh, St. Andrews Lake and the Sucker Creek wetland are rated as provincially significant. All three are designated as EP1 in the Official Plan. The EP1 designation also applies to a currently unevaluated wetland area to the west of County Rd. 93 and north of the licensed gravel pit, as well as other unevaluated wetlands in Tay Point which are larger than 2 hectares. Smaller unevaluated wetlands in Tay Point are designated Restricted Rural with the EP2 overlay. Penetang Marsh occupies much of the land around the mouth of Copeland Creek, which the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources regards as a good quality coldwater stream that provides important fish spawning and migration route function Woodlands Although the Town was a hub of the lumber industry over a century ago, it has successfully retained considerable areas of woodlands. Map 2 identifies the extent of woodlands in the Town and the amount lost in recent years. What is particularly striking is the extent of the loss of wooded areas within the built up portion of the Town between 1982 and 1998, especially in the area of Beck Boulevard. A comparison of Map 2, Woodlands, with Map 4, Major residentially-designated vacant and underdeveloped lands in the urban area of the Town reveals that much of the vacant and underdeveloped lands in the urban area are actually woodlands. The Town will need to assess how much of these urban woodlands should be protected from development. Lands that are to remain as woodlands would be also be deleted from the calculation of the land inventory for future development. In 2001 Gartner Lee Limited undertook the Natural Heritage and Hazards Lands Study for the Town. The firm focused its attention mostly on the rural woodlands in the Town. These larger, rural, woodland blocks provide habitat for more sensitive forest interior bird species, as well as a host of other wildlife. The Town identified the larger blocks of woodlands as significant woodlands and designated these as either Environmental Protection 1 (EP1) or Environmental Protection 2 (EP2) (Overlay) in the 2003 update of the Official Plan. The smaller urban woodlands, which give a distinct natural character to the built-up urban area of the Town, were not identified for policy protection in the Official Plan. These smaller woodlands are now vulnerable as the Town s population grows and intensification is encouraged. The Town should assess which urban woodlands should be protected and how the remaining woodlands might be developed. Careful preservation and/or integration of these woodland patches into infill and intensification development projects will help to maintain the attractiveness of the Town and its urban forest, a desirable feature identified in the community s VISION As above, page 31. TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 45

7 RECOMMENDATION # 2.4 (Urban Woodlands) The Town should undertake a study of its woodlands within the urban area to assess which should be fully protected and how the remaining woodlands might be developed. RECOMMENDATION # 2.5 (Urban Woodlands and the calculation of inventory of land for development) If the Town decides after the study in 2.4 to protect urban woodlands, the area of the protected woodlands should be deleted from the inventory of vacant lands for development purposes. Trees and woodlands have considerable values as shown in the following chart. TABLE 2.1 TWELVE (12) VALUES OF TREES AND WOODLAND AREAS Global climate Trees fix carbon to counteract Greenhouse Effect 2. Local climate enhancement Trees and woodlands regulate temperature Reduce/redirect wind and snow accumulation 3. Ecological value Provide habitat for forest dependent plants and animals Enhance local ecosystem stability Act as nutrient cyclers Enhance biodiversity 4. Local and regional water and soil management Reduce soil erosion Reduce intensity and volume of stormwater Improve water quality in streams and lakes Improve soil texture, structure and fertility 5. Local air quality control Reduce pollutant levels Reduce odours Enhance oxygen levels 12 Adapted from Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Discussion Paper 3, Final Draft, Woodlands: their protection, enhancement and management in the municipal planning process, (1993) Figure 1. TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 46

8 Increase settlement rates 6. Environmental barometer Woodlands are a sensitive ecosystem that rapidly show signs of a degrading environment 7. Aesthetic enhancement Provide visual experience Increase visual variety of urban landscape Improve spiritual/psychological health Provide artistic inspiration Contribute to community identity 8. Architectural/engineering value Landscaping Screening Space articulation Acoustical control Glare control Control human/vehicular traffic Erosion control 9. Recreational value Enhance outdoor recreational experiences Provides direct recreational opportunities (e.g. nature interpretation, nature appreciation) 10. Direct economic value Produce wood products, provide forest byproducts (e.g. fruit, nuts, maple syrup, resins, oils, soil conditioners, etc.) Increase property value Reduce landscaping cost 11. Local noise control Reduce or disperse noise Mask offensive noises 12. Local light or glare control Increase shade Dissipate or absorb reflected light TOWN OF PENETANGUISHENE - BACKGROUND REPORT SECTION 2: NATURAL FEATURES Page 47