By Doug Draper
The debate over a controversial plan to erect a 12-storey condo tower in front of one of the last stretches of lakeshore in the Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach open to the public raged on in the Sunday edition of The Buffalo News this Feb. 7.
The developer's image of a high-storey, big box condo that has become a subject of controversy over future development in the historic Fort Erie community of Crystal Beach.
The condo plan, as the front-page story in The Buffalo News reports, has received the support of Fort Erie Mayor Doug Martin and a majority on his council, even as it has drawn waves of opposition from residents – dividing this historic beachfront community as the council prepares to vote this March 1 on changing its height regulations to permit the tower.
The Buffalo News story, which you can read by clicking on the following link http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/948395.html, quotes Martin at one point saying: “There will be those who see it (the condo plan) as a great beginning, the cornerstone of the redevelopment of Crystal Beach, and there will always be those who will wish for older days when the (Crystal Beach amusement) part was still there and it had a small-town collage atmosphere… I think the new history of Crystal Beach begins with this project.”
On the other hand, Wayne Redekop, a former Fort Erie mayor who once supported the idea of selling some of the land in front of what is actually known as Bay Beach in the Crystal Beach area to generate revenue for buying up more lakefront for public use, is thumbs down on this particular project in a community of mostly one or two-cottages and businesses.
“I think the 12-story condominium is completely out of character with the neighborhood. I think it’s pitting people of good faith against each other, creating problems for the municipality in terms of trying to move forward, and I think it appears very much as if the council is trying to ram something through,” Redekop said. Continue reading
Niagara At Large 