Following the article entitled "Chelsea's proposed dock fees double" published in the last edition of the Low Down, the Municipality would like to clarify some information regarding the draft by-law on dock.
The draft by-law that will be tabled at the September Council for adoption is intended to resolve the issue of private docks located on municipal land only. It does not concern private docks attached to private land or those installed on private land but with a section floating over one of the lots that the Municipality has purchased from Hydro-Québec.
Three possible scenarios
In order to determine which privately owned docks on municipal land can be retained and which docks should be removed, three scenarios are proposed.
The first two scenarios provide that an occupancy permit and a dock permit could be granted on municipal land:
- if the dock is attached to Chemin de la Rivière;
- if the dock is attached to the Voie Verte Chelsea.
Private dock owners authorized to keep their docks on municipal land will be required to pay an annual rental fee of $500 and a one-time dock permit fee of $25. An identification plaque will also be required on all authorized docks. At this time, the Municipality estimates that the fee for this plate will be approximately $25.
For all other docks located on municipal land, but which do not fit into Scenarios 1 or 2, the docks will have to be removed. However, it will be possible to propose them to the Municipality for conversion to a public dock. If this occurs, a case-by-case evaluation will be conducted to assess various criteria outlined in section 2.6.2 of the draft by-law (environmental impact, location, accessibility, etc.). Once the assessment is complete, Municipal Council will decide which docks will be retained.
Private docks adjacent to private property
The draft by-law does not include any new provisions for a private dock installed on private land. This also includes docks attached to private property, but where a section of the dock floats over one of the lots that the Municipality has purchased from Hydro-Québec. In this case, the owners are subject to the usual regulations of the zoning by-law. Therefore, there is no $500 rental fee and no identification plate is required.
The proposed regulations take into consideration all comments received between August 2020 and July 2021. We invite residents to read the draft by-law. If you have any comments you wish to submit, we invite you to do so by writing to your Councillor before the next Council meeting scheduled for September 7. For any technical questions, you can contact the Planning and Sustainable Development Department at plan@chelsea.ca.
