Land Management FAQs
What is the Process?
The City of Kawartha Lakes has adopted a property disposition by-law in accordance with the Municipal Act. It has also passed a land management policy, creating a cross-departmental staff team called the “Land Management Committee”. (The current Chair of the committee is Diane McFarlane, Land Management Co-ordinator.) A non-refundable fee of $125.00 must accompany each request that is submitted to the Land Management Department, the fee can be submitted by cash, cheque or bank draft, a fee of $30.00 will be applied to any N.S.F. cheques.
All requests from interested persons to buy or lease, encroach or obtain right of way to City land are processed first through this staff committee. If the Committee sees no immediate or future need for the municipal property, a report is then prepared for Council to recommend that the property be declared surplus to municipal needs. It is then available for sale, encroachment agreement or a lease or license agreement. (A long-term lease is one in excess of 20 years.)
If the Committee determines there is a municipal need for the property, the person making the enquiry is advised by letter. Of course, decisions as to sell or not to sell property are decisions of the municipal council; not the staff. If the prospective purchaser still wishes to pursue purchase or long term lease of the land, the Land Management Committee will forward that person’s request to the Council, with a report outlining the Committee’s reasons to recommend retention of the land.
At the time of the creation of the Land Management Committee (July, 2001), the City of Kawartha Lakes had not passed any by-laws to declare any lands surplus. Where an inquiry has been outstanding since a date prior to the creation of the City of Kawartha Lakes by amalgamation (January 1, 2001), it is possible that the land may already have been declared surplus (by a former municipality). If that is the case, the by-law of the former municipality continues to be valid, and the matter can proceed as if the City of Kawartha Lakes had declared the land surplus itself.
(Note, however, that resolutions to declare properties surplus can be rescinded in accordance with the Municipal Act.)
Where the Council is inclined to sell, license or long-term lease a parcel of land, the declaration that the land is surplus must be advertised prior to any sale or lease. In addition, the municipality is required in most cases to obtain an appraisal of the land value before selling (see “road allowances” section below for an exception).
The manner in which a property is to be sold will be part of the Land Management Committee’s recommendation to the Council in each case. Often, there is only one “logical” buyer for land, and in those cases, it is likely that a direct sale will be recommended.
What will the Council Do?
No staff person or committee can guarantee what the Council will do with a recommendation to either sell (or lease) or not to sell (or lease) a particular parcel of land. The Council may or may not concur with the staff committee recommendation, and the Council decision is final.
The sale of municipal property is handled at a meeting open to the public, and interested persons may attend and/or make representations about their interests, provided Council’s rules are followed. The City Clerk’s office can provide assistance with respect to rules for making deputations at Council or Committee meetings.
You should note that the Council may choose, as land owner, to assert its right to force any occupier of municipal property to remove any structures on the land and have the occupier cease using the land.
What types of Properties Might be Sold or Leased?
A: Municipal Road Allowances
There are three fairly common circumstances where persons approach the City, seeking to purchase municipally owned property which is a road allowance.
1. Shoreline road allowances exist on many lakes within Ontario. Crown surveyors reserved a 66 foot wide road allowance around the edges of most Ontario lakes. Although many of these allowances were never opened as public municipal roads, they remain public property. Recreational and residential property owners of “lakefront” property often do not own “their” lots right up to the water’s edge. In many circumstances, the private owner has encroached onto this space and utilized it as a lot addition, without anyone being the wiser (until title searches are conducted). There are numerous circumstances where entire cottages, parts of cottages, boathouses, garages, playground equipment, landscaping, pools, etc. are actually physically located on property that is not owned by the person who put up the structure or undertook the landscaping.
2. There are also many situations where roads were originally laid out so that they lead directly into water. Often the last several feet (or several hundred feet) of those road allowance properties were never developed as travelable roads, and they remain “unopened” and in public ownership. These unopened roads sometimes create what appear to be “lots” between two homes or cottages. Others are within a forested or natural area, and are “invisible” to all but property surveyors. Some of them may have been developed as public boat launches. In many cases here, also, neighbouring owners have, over the years, encroached onto the road allowances with structures, landscaping, septic beds or wells, etc. Sometimes neighbours have come together and jointly built docks or benches or stairs, etc. (either with or without municipal permission) for mutual enjoyment and/or public use. [Please note that in the fall of 2001, City Council resolved not to sell any road allowances that lead to water. Requests to lease or occupy these types of road allowances (or parts of them) should be forwarded to the Land Management Committee. Based on Council’s resolution, however, those requests will be denied by the Land Management Committee. The request can be forwarded to Council if the person enquiring still wishes to pursue the matter.]
3. Unopened road allowance parcels which are not adjacent to water are also prevalent throughout Kawartha Lakes. These may be unopened road allowances between existing farms or other properties. They may be in circumstances of partial or seasonal use (i.e. used as snowmobile trails or for farm vehicle access routes only) or they may be in a state where the neighbouring property owner has occupied them, including circumstances where someone may have actually fenced the land. Again, there are often circumstances where neighbouring owners have, over the years, encroached onto the road allowances with structures, landscaping, septic beds or wells, etc.
Under the Limitations Act, it is not possible for persons to obtain prescriptive or “squatter’s rights” against road allowances; even those that are unopened. Accordingly the unauthorized “trespass” takes place. People have bought and sold properties with these title problems for years – they are either taking the risk that the municipality will never “officially” open/construct a road, or they are unaware of the title problem.
(Note that, under the Municipal Act, where a landowner is in occupation of a road allowance by fence, that owner may have the right to maintain possession of that road allowance against all other persons except the municipality itself.)
The private property owner can “regularize” the trespass in one of three ways:
1. purchase the land from the municipality;
2. lease the land from the municipality; or
3. obtain an encroachment agreement with the municipality.
Schedule “D” of the property disposition by-law (2010-118) sets the price for shoreline road allowances, or strips of road allowance along the edge of a traveled highway, to be offered to abutting owners, as follows:
(a) $10.00 per linear foot of highway frontage or $20.00 per linear foot of water frontage; plus
(b) a fee of $1,500.00 (to cover the City’s staff time expenses); plus
(c) all costs of the land transaction including the cost of all required notices and surveys or appraisals, legal fees and all documents required to be registered in the Land Registry Office; and
(d) payment of a non-refundable deposit in the amount of $1,000.00 in advance of the road closing, to cover the above costs.
It is impossible, therefore, to name the “exact” price in each instance. This should give a general idea, however. In all other cases, as noted, a land appraisal must be obtained prior to sale.
While it may appear that unopened road allowances, especially those that have been largely occupied by private property owners, have no municipal purposes, there may be indirect or invisible uses (such as underground services or overhead wires) or potential future uses (such as walking or bicycle trails, linear parks, or public access to water that is otherwise entirely in private ownership).
There are other individual circumstances that might apply. For example, it might be more palatable for staff to recommend the disposition of an entire length of road allowance at a given time, rather than recommend piece-meal purchases that might create small pockets of “public” land which is land-locked or accessible only by water.
B: Excess Land for the Purpose
Municipalities acquire land for many purposes: parks, walkways, trails, roads, landfill attenuation, natural areas, works depots, municipal buildings, etc. Occasionally, more land than is actually needed for the purpose is obtained, either due to the vendor’s wishes, or due to a change in plans during development of the property for its intended purpose. In other cases, a change in plans may result in a project being re-located or discontinued altogether.
In those situations, there may be extra portions of land which are surplus to municipal needs, but which are not road allowances.
C: Properties that May Have Become Surplus Due to Amalgamation
The Land Management Committee is starting to receive enquiries about offices and depot buildings that had been used by the former municipalities but are not currently in use by the administration of the City of Kawartha Lakes.
At this point in time, none of these properties has been declared surplus to the City’s needs, and staff are examining potential current and future uses for them.
D: Properties that Are Not Surplus
It is conceivable that the Land Management Committee may review, and Council may approve, a request to purchase land that was not considered surplus to municipal needs at the time the enquiry was made.
For example, assume the City is holding a parcel of land for development of a future park. However, the land is not centrally located to the community that it is going to eventually serve. The land is not surplus; because the park is needed, and the plans are proceeding to develop it. If a property owner of land more centrally located to the park community had a development proposal more suited to the City parcel, that owner might approach the City to explore a land exchange. Before the City could complete the exchange, the municipal parcel would have to be declared surplus. It would not have been considered to be surplus if the replacement property had not been available.
How long does the Process Take?
Time frames are largely dependent on the individual circumstances of the case.
The Land Management Committee meets once a month. By the time a matter is reviewed, reported on, approvals are given, surveys are prepared, advertisements allowed to run their course and legal work completed, there may be months between request and actual disposition.
The Council meets the Tuesday afternoons of the second and fourth full weeks in each month.
If the Council declares land to be surplus, the sale procedure will begin. In all cases, the surplus declaration must be advertised. If Council has determined that land should be sold by public tender, then the process will take slightly longer than if Council has approved a direct sale.
How do I contact the Land Management Committee?
Address correspondence to the Land Management Committee to:
The Corporation of the City of Kawartha Lakes
Attention: Diane McFarlane, Land Management Co-ordinator
Land Management Committee
26 Francis Street
P. O. Box 9000
LINDSAY, ONTARIO. K9V 5R8
Telephone Diane at 705-324-9411 ext. 1279
Or (Toll Free) at 1-888-822-2225
Facsimile to: 705-340-5961
Email to: dmcfarlane@city.kawarthalakes.on.ca
