The Municipality of Clarendon is in the process of introducing a bylaw that will outline the regulations for commercial campgrounds in certain areas on their territory.

Director General Patricia Hobbs explained that this is the second iteration of the bylaw that they’ve put out for public consultation.

“We were having … interest in starting commercial campgrounds in Clarendon, we had no legislation around it, no regulations, around it … so that’s where the bylaw came from,” she explained. “The initial bylaw was covering the entire municipality and basically allowing commercial campgrounds in the entire municipality …”

During the public consultation on the first bylaw they put forward, which took place in late 2020, Hobbs said that they received a lot of feedback from residents, particularly those living in zone RT 37, which covers a portion of the municipality’s south end, including the community of Sand Bay.

“Really they were just concerned about it, [so] we took back the bylaw, we repealed it, we started the process again and we redid the bylaw with just exempting RT 37, that’s the only change that was made,” she said.

There were no issues brought forward when the second version was put out for public consultation earlier this year.

Hobbs added that there was one final hurdle to clear, with the bylaw needing approval at the MRC level.

“There is another part to the process … It has passed at council so where it’s going now is to the MRC and the MRC then will have to pass it through the council of mayors to make sure it fits into their master plan for the zoning and then it will come back to us and be adopted if everything is passed there,” she explained.

Mayor John Armstrong said that since they just missed the deadline for this month’s MRC plenary meeting and the council of mayors don’t meet in July, he expected the bylaw to appear on the MRC agenda in August.

Copies of the bylaw as well as a map showing the various zones are available from the municipal office.

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