Desbarats-based purveyor of pontoons confident development concerns can be resolved

Desbarats-based Loonie Toons Pontoons and Powersports says there are some misconceptions about its proposed development next to a housing complex for people living with disabilities. 

Last week, the board of directors for PossAbility Community Homes (PCH) unanimously voted to oppose the proposed rezoning that would allow the marine business to establish a boat storage site on three lots on Amory Street. The board subsequently sent a letter outlining its concerns surrounding noise and traffic to Johnson Township officials. 

But Loonie Toons Pontoons and Powersports co-owner Janina Cedolia says the site won't lead to increased noise or traffic in the residential area should council decide to approve the zoning amendment.   

“We would have been open to discuss any of that with [the PCH board of directors]. There’s certainly a misconception on the noise level,” said Cedolia. “Yes, there will be a truck pulling a boat if we use it for storage, because that’s how we would get the boat to the storage area - but it’s no more disruptive than a vehicle passing by.”

The purveyor of pontoon boats, v-hulls, trailers and boat motors is assuring the public that nearly all of its activity will take place around its existing storefront and full-service repair shop alongside Highway 17 in Desbarats.  

“Our operation at the highway is in full swing, and we keep all of our activity down here. We have transport trucks delivering our motors to our [Highway 17] location, but they would never be required to go to the Amory Street location, because we’re wanting to use it for storage,” Cedolia said. 

Cedolia says the marine business is running out of room, and would like to acquire three lots on Amory Street for boat storage in the short term due to the close proximity of the lots to the highway storefront. 

“We were notified by our real estate agent that there was a piece of land for sale on Amory Street here in Desbarats, and we originally thought that that would be a really good location to store some boats, because we’re obviously out of room here at the highway,” Cedolia told SooToday Wednesday. “Our short-term plan would be just to store some boats there.”

“One of our problems that we have here with our current service shop is [that] it’s not deep enough to put a 24-foot pontoon in to work on it in the winter months. So down the road, our future plan would be to perhaps put up a building there on Amory Street to work on some of our bigger boats we can’t get into the shop down here.”

Johnson Township Mayor Blaine Mersereau told SooToday earlier this week that the township wants to stimulate more commercial and industrial operations within the municipality. 

He also hopes that both Loonie Toons and PossAbility Community Homes will be able to get together at some point in order to come up with an “amicable solution they can both be happy with.” 

Meanwhile, Cedolia says that she plans on attending the July 27 meeting where council will decide on the proposed rezoning, and perhaps the information provided by ownership will help to alleviate concerns.  

“We’ve been very respectful within this community, abiding by its by-laws - and we would do everything within our control to be respectful of our neighbours, just like we do in our location at the highway,” she said.