Now comes the hard part.

There was plenty of cheering and handshaking after North Frontenac Council voted to support Mayor Ron Higgins' One Small Town plan Friday afternoon in Ompah.

The motion stipulates that "there will be no financial impact at this time" but also says that the Mayor will bring a report to council "if there are costs if there are costs that arise outside the normal budget process during the implementation of this plan."
Higgins needed that support in order to apply for $280,000 in funding that would pay for an electrical infrastructure assessment.

For those unfamiliar with Higgins' plan, essentially, he wants to build a community in Plevna (on property surrounding the liquor store) that would consist of residential lots for a community of homes designed on the Earth Ship model, a home design concept that uses recycled tires, concrete and the structure of the landscape. In addition, the concept includes businesses including; honey production, wood products (canoes, furniture, wood pellets), aquaculture (fish rearing, perhaps including lobster and sea bass), a medical centre, teaching facilities and associated tourism. 
A centre piece of this community would be an electricity generating facility.

"The seed money can only be forthcoming if Council supports this," Higgins said. "Langenburg [Technologies, the Oregon company Higgins has been discussing the possibilities with] can only generate electricity if there is a municipal corporation."
Frustrated with the current lack of progress on economical development projects, Higgins began working on the concept of 'One Small Town' some four months ago. When he first floated the concept, Council "didn't want any part of it and made it clear this was my project," he said.
And yes, getting Council on board is no small thing. But regardless of all the cheering, it's just one step of many.
Higgins said they will now set up a cooperative, C & T North Frontenac (C & T standing for Contribute & Thrive).
But before any bees are buzzing, canoes sold or even Earthship houses built, there are a lot of things that have to happen and questions that have to be answered.

First of all, there's the where?

The 36.51 acre parcel where Higgins has said the One Small Town is to be located, was sold via Gordon's Estate Services Ltd. Brokerage online auction Oct. 2 to Oct. 4. The opening minimum bid was $122,500 but the price realized and/or the purchaser is not available on the website.
But before anything can happen on that site, someone or some entity will have make an application to develop the property. Since there would presumably be more than four lots involved, this would normally require a plan of subdivision or a plan of condominium.

However, since this has commercial and industrial aspects to it, it is more likely it would require a zoning change to commercial/industrial and the overall development would require an area specific special policy which would then require an amendment to North Frontenac's Official Plan.
Should that be approved, like any development, they'll need to draw up maps showing lot lines, roads and locations of things like the electrical generation station and the medical centre.

Then, it'll be time for the required studies such as a hydro-geological study to determine if there's enough water for wells, an environmental impact study, archaeological study, and site inspections from the County Planning department, the Mississippi Conservation Authority, the KFL&A Health Unit, the North Frontenac Public Works Department and Building Department.

And all that has to happen before any shovels go in the ground.

Then there will be similar processes for each of the business aspects of the development, including visits from any and all licensing bodies that will need to become involved.
While no actual planning documents of the development exist, there have been estimates of 122 lots.
Much smaller subdivisions in recent years, without the commercial/industrial component, generally have taken about two years before building starts.