By Doug Draper
Another one of the few popular beaches left along the lakeshores of Niagara. Another plan to construct a high-rise condominium next to them.
A depiction of the high-rise condo many Crystal Beach residents are fighting to keep off of the popular Bay Beach in their community.
It is a scenario that is all too familiar to the residents of Port Dalhousie in St. Catharines and it is now one the residents of Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie find themselves embroiled in.
And just as I remember trying to shoehorn my way into a jam-packed legion hall in Port Dalhousie six years ago to hear residents duke it out with a consortium of high-priced developers and lawyers over plans to erect a multi-storey condo tower in the middle of a designated heritage district, the municipal hall in Fort Erie was crammed this past Jan. 25 with hundreds of people from the area – more than a dozen of them who stood up before the town’s council to speak for and more than two dozen who spoke against plans to build a 12-storey condo tower in front of Bay Beach.
And just as the developers won their bid to erect a 17-storey condo near Port Dalhousie’s Lakeside Park – despite a regional planning report that listed several reasons why the proposal conflicted with municipal and provincial planning rules, and a newly elected city council that joined in opposing it at Ontario Municipal Board hearings – those in Fort Erie opposed to this one have a long and costly fight on their hands. And the Fowler’s Toad (a threatened species in this province that apparently inhabits the site) is probably not going to help them.
The only thing that might be of help is a change in municipal and provincial government (elections for those levels of government fall respectively his coming October and the fall of 2011) and a complete overhaul or abolition of the Ontario Municipal Board. Nothing short of that might stop whatever space is left along the shores of Niagara’s lakes from being lined with high-storey condos. Because that is the way we are going.
Hundreds of residents take seats outside of overflowing town hall meeting in Fort Erie's council chambers on plans to build a condo tower in front of a popular lakeshore beach. Photo by Doug Draper
If thousands of people in St. Catharines could not stop the high-rise condo from going up in a Port Dalhousie centre that is one of a small number of designated heritage districts across this province, what chance do the people of the Crystal Beach area have of stopping a condo from going up there.
If they believe this 12-storey condo is the wrong thing in a community of mostly one- and two-storey cottages and businesses then, by all means, fight on, even if it only goes to prove once again that the system, up to and including the Ontario Municipal Board, couldn’t give a fig about what the majority of residents in a community think about a developer’s plans. In other words, do it if it only exposes again how undemocratic a system we have when it comes to the kind of development a majority of residents want in their communities.
What seems especially sad about this Bay Beach one is that the Town of Fort Erie was good enough to buy Bay Beach in or around the beginning of this decade for a couple of million of dollars. It did so with some recognition that there are few open beaches left for the people of this region to enjoy. 
Most of the rest of the beaches along our lakes – as those of us who wish to enjoy them know – are lined with private cottages and businesses where, even if we could find a place to park, we are met with signs telling us we are not welcome to walk or some of the more delicate signs say ‘loiter’ along these beaches. Never mind that these are our Great Lakes, for God’s sake.
Forgive me for getting a little passionate about our Great Lakes hear and the billions of dollars taxpayers on both sides of the Canadian and U.S. border have spent to protect and preserve them, but I have spent a good deal of my summers walking the beaches of Cape Cod, Massachusetts where the cottages (if you could call these $1.5 million huts that and some of the finest inns on the continent) cannot keep you from enjoying a beach because Massachusetts, unlike Ontario, actually has laws guaranteeing public access to a beach.
I would think that if we, the citizens of this province, are called upon to contribute some of our taxdollars to protect and preserve the Great Lakes that we should have access to them.
Now I know that the proponents of this Bay Beach condo project will say we will still have access to the beach and that their development will actually help the town of Fort Erie pay for that access and for better washroom facilities for beachgoers and so on.
But the question is, why do we have to go here? Why do we have to go to a private developer who wants to build a tower that is totally out of character with a historic community along our Lake Erie shores to “save” what little access the public has left to our Great Lakes.
I thought I heard Niagara’s regional chairman Peter Partington repeat for the second time in a matter of three months that one of his priorities is to save what is left of public access to the beaches. Is there no funding the regional government can provide to help keep Bay Beach – one of the very few public beaches left along Niagara’s whole Lake Erie shoreline – open and accessible to families and others that have enjoyed this gem of a shoreline for decades.
Is our only recourse to bow to some out-of-town developer who says; ‘We’ll let you keep your beach if we can build something that is totally out of whack with the surrounding community?’
One of the most disgusting things I heard coming out of the proponents for this high-rise condo plan during the town hall session in Fort Erie is that the condo has something to do with “intensification” and “smart growth,” meaning it should be greeted as a good thing because it is not low-density urban sprawl.
In answer to that, this kind of development bastardizes everything that good, healthy sustainable ‘smart’ growth is supposed to stand for. If these developers are really into intensification in an urban area where it might make sense to build a tower this high, why not go to Fort Erie’s urban core down near the Niagara River and build your condo there.
The answer would probably be no because they want to build it along a picturesque beach that Niagara families have enjoyed going to for generations because they can sell more units in their condominium development there. And let’s get one-thing straight folks. Most of us mortals out here are probably not going to be able to afford to buy one.
And how long will it be before the people who can afford to buy one go to the town’s council and say; ‘What can you do to get the riff-raff off our beach?’
And given how few laws there are in Ontario today to ensure public access to our lakeshore beaches, they will likely find a way to get us off. If we don’t fight back, we can count on it.
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It is unfortunate that most of our elected council doesn’t seem to hear what the majority is saying, and that is NO to this project. It appears this is being rammed down our throats. Itwas interesting to read an outsider newspaper, The Buffalo News the day after the Monday night meeting; ” Supporters said it would reinvigorate the area, bring in new residents, generate tax revenue and boost local businesses. Opponents of the plan said the high-rise was out of scale and would do irrevocable harm to the beach’s historical ambience. But many of the opponents-who appeared to be in the majority- were only able to say it to themselves or to the media. The first critic of the project wasn’t allowed to speak until nearly 8:30 – almost 2 1/2 hours after the meeting was scheduled to start. Thats because Mayor Doug Martin, presiding over the meeting, following an opening presentation by the developer. By allowing supporters to speak- without a time limit- before critics could have a chance.” ” I’m frustrated, because I came to listen to both sides, and after two hours I have only heard the supporters, and people who are opposing it are streaming out of here: said a Buffalonian who has a summer cottage in Bay Beach”
There are two on council who I believe are really for the people and the rest…well I just can’t wait til the next election.
We expected this to happen. In fact, Mark Sommer interviewed me for this piece and he said himself that this often happens stateside as well. It is designed to wear down the opposition, making them wait to speak. We advised our people that it would be a long wait until they would be heard. Unfortunately, many had to leave before the end, which came at 1:00 am. What will not show up in the news reports, and may be expunged from the taped telecast of the meeting is the behaviour of EDTC head Jim Thibert who really disgraced himself by calling Ann Marie Noyes “delusional” when she asked him a question. There was also the mayor’s deliberate plan to make Tom Lewis and John Papdakis wait to speak until the very end. They both ran against Martin in 2006. It caused those who stayed to chuckle at the ridiculousness of the mayor’s petty behaviour.
So the council rules of procedure should be suspended for this issue?
Not just the proponents were allowed to speak for as long as they wanted, but so too were the opponents. The custom in every previous public meeting under the Planning Act in Fort Erie in at least 20 years was held in this format. The exception is the Speedway public hearing where speakers were limited to five minutes. What makes this issue so special that it should be changed to suit the opponents?
That might be the way they do it in East Amherst, North Tonawanda, West Virginia and the South Towns, but it’s been this way for as long as I remember in Fort Erie.
Ann Marie could have helped the cause by keeping quiet, let people say their bits and move on. All councillors should have shut the heck up and let people speak and so they could get home before Tuesday.
I have to correct my comment.
The speedway hearing, was not a public meeting under than planning act as Monday’s meeting was, so it did not follow the same process.
Therefore, there has been no exception to format.