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Visioning Sessions - Beaver Valley Corridor

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Overview

The Municipality of Grey Highlands recognizes the importance of the Beaver Valley as one of Ontario’s iconic natural splendours, cut into the Niagara Escarpment.  A productive agriculture area, transected by the Bruce Trail, the Beaver Valley features several natural landmarks including Old Baldy, Hoggs Falls, the Duncan Crevice Caves and Eugenia Falls, and is known for a myriad of outdoor pursuits including skiing, snowboarding, hiking and cycling.

With increased tourism activity to the area, especially over the past year, the Municipality has made a commitment to engage with stakeholders and community members to seek feedback and input for an overall Beaver Valley vision that will provide guiding principles for future undertakings in the area.

Carefully planned community development through public engagement will provide direct benefits to the entire Municipality and will be focused on respecting the importance of the area’s natural and cultural assets, and supporting enhanced quality of life, rural lifestyle, and meaningful and sustainable economic activity.

“Council has long recognized the importance of the Beaver Valley as an important feature of our community fabric. Recent pressures related to increased visitation to the area have highlighted the need to ensure future activities respect the Valley’s ecological integrity and support the needs of the community for generations,” said Grey Highlands Mayor, Paul McQueen.

As identified in Grey Highlands’ 2019-2023 Strategic Plan, the Municipality values its shared responsibility to leave a legacy of a clean and nourishing natural environment while respecting the community’s heritage.

 

Recap of Beaver Valley Visioning Sessions (April 28, 2021)

The Municipality hosted six community engagement sessions to seek input on an overall Beaver Valley corridor vision. Facilitated by The Planning Partnership on behalf of the Municipality, over 450 registered attendees shared their thoughts and feedback on the 40-kilometre corridor in Grey Highlands that extends from Hoggs Falls in the south to north of Epping. 

Please click here to view the presentation delivered by The Planning Partnership.

Session 1 - 10:00 am

Video Recording

Chat Log

Whiteboard

Session 2 - 1:00 pm 

Video Recording

Chat Log

Whiteboard

 

Session 3 - 4:00 pm

Video Recording

Chat Log

Whiteboard

 

Session 4 - 7:00 pm

Video Recording

Chat Log

Whiteboard 

Recap of Beaver Valley Visioning Sessions (May 5, 2021)

The Municipality hosted six community engagement sessions to seek input on an overall Beaver Valley corridor vision. Facilitated by The Planning Partnership on behalf of the Municipality, over 450 registered attendees shared their thoughts and feedback on the 40-kilometre corridor in Grey Highlands that extends from Hoggs Falls in the south to north of Epping. 

Please click here to view the presentation delivered by The Planning Partnership.

Session 5 - 1:00 pm

Video Recording

Chat Log

Whiteboard

 

Session 6 - 4:00 pm

Video Recording

Chat Log

Whiteboard

Beaver Valley Visioning Final Report

On April 7, 2021, Council approved the appointment of The Planning Partnership to undertake a Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning exercise (Resolution # 2021-239) to solicit public feedback on a community vision for the Beaver Valley Corridor, a 40 km stretch in Grey Highlands, that extends from Hogg's Falls in the south to north of Epping.

 

Between mid-April and July 16, 2021, The Planning Partnership undertook a variety of initiatives to solicit public feedback, including a preliminary survey, six two-hour online workshops, a post-workshop survey, as well as encouraging comments from the public to be sent directly to the Municipality via the Economic and Community Development department.

 

The final report includes a proposed vision statement that encompasses the feedback and themes that came out of the visioning process: 

"The Beaver Valley Corridor, a significant ecological system in the heart of Grey Highlands, will be a model of best practices in sustainable, ecological and environmental pursuits in support of the long-term social, cultural and economic vitality of the community for generations."

 

Final Report

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I continue to share my thoughts and ideas for the Beaver Valley?
Please email all comments to ecdev@greyhighlands.ca.

2. Will there be a discussion on Talisman?
The Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning project is focused on the entire 40-kilometre corridor, extending in Grey Highlands from Hoggs Falls in the south to north of Epping. It would be up to Council to determine if there will be specific discussions related to the privately owned Talisman Lodge property and the two adjacent Municipal properties. 

3. What happened with the results of the previous task force’s work on Talisman?
The Talisman Task Force report (16 April 2014) has been shared with Council and has been shared with the consultants (The Planning Partnership) who are working with the Municipality on this project. 

4. How are we involving indigenous communities/nations in consultation on Beaver Valley? The initial engagement invitation was shared broadly. All those interested were encouraged to participate. 

5. What are Council’s thoughts on Talisman?
Council entered into an agreement with the owners of the former Talisman Lodge to collectively market the properties and entered negotiations with Westway Capital on the purchase of the municipally owned lands.

6.  What happened with the motion brought forward by the Protecting Talisman Lands Association to halt the sale of the Talisman lands?

On March 14, 2022 a Superior Court of Justice in Owen Sound ruled in favour of Grey Highlands and dismissed a motion brought forward by the Protecting Talisman Lands Association to halt the sale of the municipally owned Talisman lands. Key highlights from the ruling include that the Municipality has the right to sell the lands; the Municipality followed proper due diligence under the Municipal Act; and there will be many layers of oversight through the planning process to ensure the public’s interest will be met in how the lands are used by the new owners.

7. What happened with the Talisman sale to Westway Capital?

On February 2, 2022 Council passed a by-law finalizing the Agreement of Purchase and Sale to for the Municipal lands described as 150 Talisman Mountain Drive. At the May 17 Council meeting, Council agreed to a motion to advance the dates of the closing for the Municipal properties known as 150 Talisman Mountain Road - Upper and Lower to no earlier than May 25, 2022.

8. What are Council’s thoughts on the Beaver Valley?
Council has long recognized the importance of the Beaver Valley as an important feature of our community fabric. The Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning process will provide input to developing a framework to support carefully planned community development that will provide direct benefits to the entire Municipality and will be focused on respecting the importance of the area’s natural and cultural assets, and support enhanced quality of life, rural lifestyle, and meaningful and sustainable economic activity. The public will continue to be involved through any applications for development. As identified in Grey Highlands’ 2019-2023 Strategic Plan, the Municipality has committed to spearheading opportunities for the development of municipally-owned properties , including those in the Beaver Valley. The Strategic Plan also highlights the Municipality’s value for a shared responsibility to leave a legacy of a clean and nourishing natural environment while respecting the community’s heritage. 

9. What’s the timing on the Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning?
The summary report on what was heard at the Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning workshops and through the online survey will be complete in early summer. The summary report will include an overarching vision statement and guiding principles for the Beaver Valley Corridor. 

10. What is the outcome/product of the Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning?
The report will provide a draft overarching vision statement and principles to direct future planning in Beaver Valley. Council will review the findings from the report and will determine next steps. 

11. What are the future opportunities for engagement?
The Municipality continues to welcome comments on the Beaver Valley Corridor Visioning process via email to ecdev@greyhighlands.ca. All comments are being compiled and consolidated and are being shared with the project consultants (The Planning Partnership) and Council and will be part of the final project report. Now that the six visioning workshops are complete, the consultants will be creating a survey that will be available by early June that will solicit further input and will help verify what was heard through the visioning process. The feedback from the survey responses will also help inform the final report that is presented to Council. 

12. Has consideration been given to identifying alternate truck routes to avoid travelling through villages?
That was not specifically part of this scope of work, but there are a number of initiatives currently being proposed, including work by the Kimberley Safety Group, that will help inform Council discussions on next steps for opportunities in the Beaver Valley corridor.

13. Of the 11,200 hectares in the Valley, how much is privately owned?

There are approximately 3,330 hectares of land in public ownership in the Beaver Valley Corridor, leaving just over 7,800 hectares in private ownership. The yellow highlighted areas (below) provide a rough mapping of publicly owned lands.

 

 

 

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