Prince Edward County Council decided to stay the course with a Site Plan for Lakeside Motel in Wellington on May 24.

Council heard multiple deputations and a plethora of audience comments. They ranged from assertions that the expanding motel is a nuisance due to excessive noise and its largescale expansion of operations to defences that Lakeside Motel and its owner Renda Abdo have been bylaw compliant, good neighbors and caring employers.

There were also questions regarding whether the necessity of a Site Plan Control Agreement for the motel, which the owner argued would impose hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of studies, was punitively triggered because a few nearby neighbour complaints. Council then queried and discussed in some heated moments as to what exactly triggers Site-Plans for commercially zoned properties. Planning staff responded that knowledge by the municipality of a dramatically expanded use of a commercial site does. Couns. Brad Nieman and Phil Prinzen then put forward a motion that called for an exemption for the motel from site planning, due to their fears of it becoming a retroactive and reactive regulatory hammer on local businesses. This was also motivated by concerns over how municipal staff should have caught the motel’s expansion sooner. However, the motion was defeated 11 to 3, due to the majority believing the certainty of a Site Plan is better for future neighbourhood relations, and fears that an exemption would put the municipality in violation of both the relevant bylaw and the provincial Planning Act.

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