You May Not Own Your Own Shoreline

It is called a shore road allowance. These were laid out in the 19th century on Crown land to allow for logging and the transportation of goods, and they were never removed. The Township of North Frontenac describes the strip as roughly 20 metres, or 66 feet, and defines it as a public highway under the Municipal Act. The township owns it unless a previous owner went through the process of buying the title.

Here is what that means in practice. North Frontenac states it plainly: you cannot obtain a building permit for property you do not own.

So if the allowance in front of your lot was never purchased, you may not be able to permit a dock, a marine storage shed, a viewing platform or a gazebo on it. And it is not only new construction. Repairs and renovations need proof of ownership too.

The part that should make any waterfront buyer stop is this. The township notes that many older dwellings were built on township owned allowances. Meaning there are cottages in Ontario sitting on land their owners do not own, and the owners usually find out when they try to pull a permit.

What it takes to buy one, using North Frontenac's published process as the example:

• Only the owner of the land directly behind the allowance can apply.
• The process runs roughly 8 to 12 months.
• There is a non refundable administration fee of 1,200 dollars plus HST at submission.
• A road inspector does a site visit, and no inspections happen in winter.
• Council approves in principle or denies.
• If approved, you provide a registered survey, neighbours and outside agencies are notified, you post a notice on the property, and Council then considers a by law to close and sell the strip.
• The land itself is 55 cents per square foot based on the surveyed area.
• Your own surveyor and solicitor are extra.

Costs and process vary by municipality, so treat those numbers as one township's published schedule rather than a province wide rate.

One more thing from the same by law, because it catches people who assume the shoreline is theirs to clear. North Frontenac requires a natural vegetation buffer of at least 15 metres along the shoreline, with the waterfront activity area limited to the lesser of 25 percent of the frontage or 15 metres.

What to check before you make an offer:

1. Ask directly whether the shore road allowance in front of the property has been closed and conveyed. Get it in writing.
2. If it has, ask for the registered survey and the by law.
3. If it has not, find out what is currently sitting on it, because that is an encroachment on public land.
4. Ask the municipality for its own process and fee schedule, since they differ.
5. Price the timeline into your plans. Eight to twelve months is not a closing condition you can satisfy quickly.

Source: Township of North Frontenac, Shore Road Allowances.