Are wilderness villages in northern Ontario an answer to the housing crisis or careless development?

Calls are growing for the province to do something about new communities being built in the northern Ontario wilderness.

Debate over medieval villages, as they're called,is heating up as a new project is being planned for the shores of Kenogami Lake.

The development company, known as Boreal Forest Medieval Villages, is in the process of buying a forested shoreline on the popular lake just off Highway 11, where it would build a new community of 80 investors interested ineco-friendly, low-cost living.

"You put two or three hundred people on this lake, there's nothing green coming out of that but the money in his pocket," said Russell Evans, who has lived on Kenogami Lake for most of his life.

When Evans learnedabout plans to develop the property, he and other lake residents pulled together $650,000 to try to outbid the village group for the property listed at $625,000.

Evans saidthe province banned the creation of new lots on the lake years ago to protect it from pollution.

He says the village's plan to have as many as 80 camps and trailers onthe property without legally subdividing it is a dangerous "loophole."

"There's no loophole. It is simply allowed," said Anthony Barrett, the project manager for Boreal Forest Medieval Villages.

"There's enough bureaucracy on us in unorganized townships to do this right."

Barrett lives in the Niagara Region in southern Ontario. and after years of trying to find a way to build more affordable housing in the south, he saidhe realized that municipal bureaucracy was the "main problem" and startedlookingto the unincorporated townships ofnorthern Ontario.

"We're now into the second generation of Canadians who will not be able to afford housing under the current structure," he said.

"We're entering a modern feudalism, where if you don't own a property at this point, you probably never will."

His company has now sold shares in three projects in northern Ontario, aiming to make Kenogami the fourth.

But with the rising cost of real estate in recent years, Barrett saidthe cost for a share that entitles you to a half-acre site has jumped from$2,500 to around $15,000.

"We've been painted like we're going there and it's going to sort of belike the wild west and, you know, it's going to be a free-for-all," Barrett said.

"The province of Ontario has very strict rules on what we can do with any property."

However, Barrett said he doesn't feel there are enough rules when it comes to howthis new model for development is taxed, and is asking the province tocome up with a new designation separate from other unorganized property owners"so that we can pay the proper taxes."

The Temiskaming Municipal Services Association and the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities are also lobbying the province to take action, generally wanting to see more regulations for these new villages.

Evans and other residents of Kenogami Lake also have government intervention on their list of options to stop this from happening.

"We're trying every avenue legally available to us to stop or minimize the affect of it," said Evans.

John Vanthof, the New Democrat MPP for Timiskaming-Cochrane, has spoken out aboutthe new communities popping up in his riding, calling them the "wild west of land leases" and "kind of like a condo corporation, but with no rules."

"In many cases, when you don't need to have a building permit and you aren't doing official plans, you are depending on the self-governance of those people," he said.

"I can see the attraction of what they're attempting to do, but I also see many pitfalls. I hope the ministry acts before we need to put a moratorium on all building."

The Ministry of the Environment saidin a statement to CBCNews that it is monitoring these new villages, and staff have "visited one of the sites and we intend to conduct a followup visit before year end to make further observations and continue discussions with the developers."

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing saidin a statement it is "gathering information about these developments and the implications, as well as options that may be available to address local concerns."