Home building strong in Trent Hills

County report for 2024 shows town has second most residential permits

May 14, 2025

Lots of homes were built in Trent Hills last year.

Trent Hills issued 80 residential building permits in 2024, second in the county behind only Cobourg which had 92, according to a Northumberland County report.

The report shows that Brighton issued 69 permits, Alnwick/Haldimand 34, Cramahe 26, Hamilton Township 24, and Port Hope 21. Total for the county was 346 permits.

The report says across the county the estimated value of new construction and renovations was $207 million — a 46 per cent decrease from $381 million in 2023. The estimated construction value for new units decreased by 50 per cent in 2024 and the estimated construction value for residential renovations, additions, and improvements decreased by 21 per cent.

The decline in new residential construction in 2024 may have been a result higher interest rates, economic uncertainty, and affordability concerns, the report says.

Detached homes made up 56 per cent of all new units, while multi-residential builds accounted for 30 per cent. However, all categories except semi-detached homes declined from the year before.

In 2024, the number of residential building permits in Trent Hills was up from 60 in 2023, but down from 124 in 2022.

In a report to Trent Hills council on Tuesday, the local building department said that in the first three months of 2025 it issued permits for nine new homes, valued at $3.3 million and 18 renovations, valued at $1.4 million.

No action taken on Trent Dr. speeding

Trent Hills councillors have shrugged off a report that 70 per cent of people driving on Trent Drive in Campbellford are going over the limit, noting that speeding is a problem everywhere.

During their meeting on Tuesday, councillors considered a report for the month of March that tracked vehicle speeds on the road that’s a community safety zone listed at 40 km/h.

I suggested in a story last week that since the report showed on most days more than 70 per cent of drivers exceeded the limit and most days some driver hit the high 70s, almost double the limit, that it might be a place to install photo radar. That option was not considered.

Councillor Rob Pope, who is council’s representative on the county board overseeing the OPP service, said he was monitoring efforts in Brighton to introduce photo radar, aka automated speed enforcement, but said it’s not clear it will be cost effective.

He didn’t elaborate on whether he simply meant revenue from the tickets might not cover the cost of the cameras, which seems unlikely based on experience elsewhere. The more accurate comparison would be to compare the cost of a camera to the cost of having an officer with an average income of $110,000 sitting in a $75,000 cruiser 24/7.

Pope said the OPP detachment doesn’t have enough officers to be everywhere.

Councillor Rick English noted that speeding is a problem in many parts of Trent Hills and referred to a pie chart prepared by Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Phillips, which was not in the public agenda, that he said showed 81 per cent of drivers were going 50 km/h or less.

“I don’t think that is all that bad. I know we have roads that are far worse than that,” English said. “The signage helps.”

Councillor Dennis Savery asked why Trent Drive has a 40 km/h limit, when the normal limit is 50 km/h. Neil Allanson, Manager of Roads and Urban Services, explained that the community safety designation was put on the road because it includes the Kennedy Park soccer field, the tennis courts, the Rotary Trail, and the Island Park retirement home.

Savery also referred to the widespread problem of speeding and concluded “I don’t see this as a place we have to designate more attention to than we’ve already done.”

Power outage showed need for generators

Council approved taking $20,000 from the fire department’s reserve fund to purchase a backup generator for the fire hall in Hastings.

During the recent icestorm and resulting power outages, there were problems because the doors on the Hastings fire hall “had to be manually lifted, resulting in delayed response times,” said a report by Fire Chief Shawn Jamieson.

“While this particular event did not involve any major incidents where seconds were critical, future power outages may not afford us the same margin. Installing a standby generator at the station will significantly enhance our emergency preparedness. It will allow the station to maintain full functionality during outages, including automated bay door operation, lighting, and essential equipment use.”

The municipality is also considering purchasing generators for the Sunny Life Wellness & Recreation Centre and the Hastings Field House, said Peter Burnett, Director of Community Service.

Burnett said the generators would allow those centres to serve residents during another power outage.

Closing a road to nowhere

The dashed line in the middle is the unopened, unknown, now closed road allowance.

Road allowance runs through existing brick home.

Blue shows the property that’s to be developed.

Council acted on Tuesday to fix a legal problem that was created at some point in the last 150 years. An unopened road allowance somehow, sometime, became part of a piece of land near the old Campbellford Arena that is now being sold for development.

Last fall, after a public meeting, council agreed to rezone the property which would permit James Steele and Leah Steele to sell the 6.86-acre lot to Ken Nicholson for development. But when the owners went to sell the property, they discovered it included an unopened road allowance, which technically means there is a right to public access.

“The road allowance forms part of the legal description for this property, despite the land being held under private ownership,” said Planner Cameron Law in a report to council. “The exact reason for this is unknown, as the instruments registered on title do not show evidence of the transfer.”

Law said a map from 1878 shows the road allowance, but the 7^th line veers north, probably to avoid a couple of hills. The municipality should have given up its right to the allowance, but there is no record that it ever did.

“This has led to the current issue, where the land is under private land ownership, but there is still a technical right to public access over the lands, as no documentation has been prepared and registered to remedy this (until now),” Law wrote.

Council agreed to pass a bylaw to stop up and close the road allowance, which is just as well since it runs through the brick farmhouse on the property.