By Michael Boriero
A cottage development project that received significant pushback from Potton residents, with a group going so far as creating an online petition against the proposal, has officially been nixed by the small town’s municipal council after it was deemed incomplete.
The project proposed by Chalets Vacances 360 inc. and promoter Réal Dubuc would have seen 32 chalets built on a 17-acre property out on Baker Road. However, residents questioned how that would work on a narrow road that can barely fit snowplow tractors in the winter.
Potton Mayor Bruno Côté shared in their concerns about the project. On Tuesday, he told The Record that through the municipality’s evaluation of the proposed cottage development, it was determined that the project was not even close to being complete, and by a substantial margin.
“When the citizens brought forward that this particular project had 17 acres and was going to build 32 houses on it with their individual septic field well, obviously, the questions that were raised needed to be looked at,” said Côté, adding it did not comply with the town’s regulations.
However, there are several development proposals on the table, according to the mayor, including a few on Baker Road and some closer to Owl’s Head. And the town has altered its local development bylaws to better suit the needs of its citizens, as well as visitors coming in.
“We changed the distances in between the cottages for the project. We made it a lot larger, so I think that anybody who wants to have this kind of project now needs a minimum of 50 acres because the idea behind these kinds of projects is to find yourself in nature,” said Côté.
With Réal Dubuc’s proposal, renters weren’t truly going to be in nature, he continued, and then there was the question of traffic in the town. It was unclear as to how guests would be monitored during their stay in Potton. One promoter apparently suggested installing cameras.
Côté noted residents weren’t in favour of this proposal. They don’t have much faith that it would actually work in maintaining some semblance of peace in the town, he said. But while this project hasn’t panned out, the mayor isn’t hiding the fact that he wants development.
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