Hey Public! Stand Up For One Of The Last Open Beaches Along Niagara’s Lakeshores Before It Is Gone

 By Doug Draper

 This coming March 1, the council of Fort Erie may very well support a plan to build a multi-storey condo tower that would be completely out of place in the historic, lakeside town of Crystal Beach, and would cast a shadow on the future on one of the last open beaches for the public in the Niagara region.

That beach is Bay Beach, usually packed with mostly young people and families having a wonderful time walking the sands and wading the waters of Lake Erie in the summertime. But a Toronto area development consortium, called the Molinary Group, thinks it has a better idea for the lands in front of this beach – to build a multi-storey condo tower for the rich and privileged.

And most of Fort Erie’s council, seems perched to swallow the plan, hook, line and sinker. 

For the rest of us – those of us who live in this region and are blessed to live near two of the greatest freshwater lakes in the world –this plan just about seals the fate on any stretches of the Lake Erie or Ontario shorelines we or any visitors to this region have free access to.

That means we can just about forget about any opportunity a bunch of kids, a young family or any of the rest of us have to get out of a car in Niagara and take a simple walk along the beach. And that should be a concern to all of us including, these Fort Erie councillors and councillors in our regional government who claim they favour public access to the shores of our lakes and river. It should even matter to those in business – particularly the tourist industry – that want to draw visitors to this region. Just ttry telling people who may want to visit or move here that despite the fact we are surrounded by all this beautiful lake water tsouth and north of us, there is barely a place left to take a simple walk along a beach without either paying at some toll gate for it, or being shooed away by private property owners lining the shoreline.

Keep reading below for my further take on this, followed by the transcript of a  plea Wayne Redekop,  a Fort Erie resident and former mayor of Fort Erie, made to the town’s council to keep Bay Beach open this February 22.

Last Open Beach Along Niagara’s Lakeshores Is All But Gone

By Doug Draper

Twice over the past couple of months – once this past December as Niagara regional council was about to enter the fourth and final year of its term, and once this January when he announced that this would be his last term in office – regional chairman Peter Partington stressed that he wanted to make “improving public access to our lakes and rivers” one of his top priorities in 2010.

It is a great goal that speaks to public good and to the shameful fact that although this region is blessed to be framed along its northern and southern boundaries by two of the greatest freshwater lakes in the world, there is hardly place left where our residents and people who visit this region have free and open access to them.

With this in mind, the region has recently launched a ‘Lakefront Enhancement Strategy’ with an eye to improving and possibly even buying up pieces of the shoreline for public use.

“My personal view is that there is room for more public ownership of our lakeshores,” said Partington a few months back when the Lakefront Enhancement Strategy was being formed. “Every resident should have access to clean beaches (and) public access is the goal.”

I have no doubt Peter Partington, who is apparently not running for anything any more, is sincere in his desire to leave, as one of his legacies, the opening up of as much lakefront as reasonably possible to Niagara’s residents and to the countless hundreds of thousands of people who visit this region each year for our collective enjoyment.

But it is too bad someone like Partington, who has previously president of the Ontario Great Lakes Renewal Foundation, with a mandate for protecting and preserving our Great Lakes, did not come along at the regional level a couple of decades ago with a pledge to keep what little is left of the shores of Lakes Erie and Ontario open and accessible to the public.

That’s because, unfortunately, it is almost too late action now. With the sale of the Easter Seals Park in Wainfleet to private developers, Marcy’s Woods in Fort Erie to a private concern that still won’t put his cards on the table for this rich, natural site, and earlier on, the old and wonderful beach many Niagarians new as “the sand hills” in the Port Colborne/Wainfleet area to private developers who blocked it off with vanity homes, most of the lakeside equivalents to horses have already left the barn.

 About the only magical beach left that the public has open access to in the entire Niagara region is Bay Beach in the historic Crystal Beach area of Fort Erie, and I would challenge Partington and his council, to rally their Lakefront Enhancement Strategy and use every other means possible to keep it that way.

This wonderful old beach is now on the verge of being fronted by a high-rise condo tower being proposed by a Toronto area developer that a majority of Fort Erie’s council, including Mayor Doug Martin, seem ready to give approval too as early as this coming Monday, March 1. That despite what appears to be major opposition from members of the public the council is seemingly elected to represent and renewed calls by residents of Crystal Beach – many of whom have volunteered to rejuvenate the community since the closing of the amusement park by the same name more than a decade ago.

“I have concern about how the proposal for development at Bay Beach has divided our community,” said Redekop. “I am concerned when I am approached by dedicated, long-term volunteers of the area who feel that they are being ignored and who despair that what they have worked toward over the past 15 years is in jeopardy. … I understand that the dedicated volunteers of Crystal Beach are not unanimous in their views regarding Bay Beach. But a large majority do not agree with the Town’s current proposal.  I believe that for you to proceed without having due regard to their views will hamper your efforts to build and to guide this community.

I would say Amen to that and what are the rest of us going to do to ensure that this beach remains completely open and accessible to the public, without some intrusive, private tomb in front of it?

Sadly, one of  Fort Erie’s councillors, Ann-Marie Noyes, attempted to place a motion on the floor this Monday night to at least consider the region’s Lakefront Enhancement Strategy as an alternative to erecting a condo tower completely out of place in this classic old community. And it was turned down! That’s how much the majority on this council seem willing to gobble down the developers’ pie.

So Mr. Regional Chairman, when are you and your council going to step in and help Fort Erie keep one of Niagara’s last open lakefronts open and accessible to the public. Do it now, before it is too late!

 For the record, here is presentation Fort Erie resident and former mayor Wayne Redekop made to the town’s council this February 22, urging the council to keep Bay Beach open and accessible to the public.

 “Thanks for opportunity to address council.

I would like to speak to you this evening about Crystal Beach over the past 15-20 years, from my perspective – as it was, as it has been and as it is, as well as how it might be.  I hope that my comments will help to re-focus the lense on matters before you, and that you will accept my comments in the spirit in which they are made.

 Two reasons for (my) delegation:

1.         (I) recently received a message from a friend who has been very actively involved in the revitalization of C.B. over the past decade:  she expressed disappointment and despair about the proposed Bay Beach development

2.         I was reminded of the words of Elie Wiesel, renowned humanist and activist, from his 1999 millenium speech:  “Indifference, then, is not only a sin, it is a punishment”

            By that he meant that each of us in civil society has an obligation to speak up on important issues.  If we fail to do so, not only do we fail in our civic responsibility, but we are condemned to live with the decisions made by those in authority, no matter the consequences.

 You are charged with making the decisions that guide and build this community.  I believe that each of you is doing the very best that you can.  My responsibility, as a resident\citizen, is to impart to you my knowledge and perspective with respect to matters on which you must make decisions.

You may recall what C.B. was like around the time of the closure of the amusement park:

• Absentee landlords of summer cottages let their properties become run down
• Part of the area became a destination for welfare recipients from other communities because of the low cost housing
• There was a lot of senseless vandalism
• Municipal infrastructure was deteriorating
• The area developed a very negative reputation

Small groups of dedicated residents decided to change things.  They solicited the assistance and cooperation of the Town.  They sought ways to improve streetscapes, clean up the neighbourhood, establish a plan for renewal.  Some of the important milestones included:

• The C.A.U.S.E. study
• Work on the boat launch
• Creation of the C.B.I.A.
• A neighbourhood clean up program (that resulted in scores of junk cars being towed out of the area a decade ago)
• The revitalization of the park at Victoria Circle
• Organized efforts to beautify the area

The Town assisted in most of these endeavours and also addressed the coloured water problem and insfrastructure deficiencies, encouraged the completion of the Crystal Beach Waterfront Park and acquired the Rebstock property at Bay Beach.

I know something about the purchase of Bay Beach.  It was one of two waterfront properties that the Town was considering purchasing at the time.  We really only wanted to acquire the beach, but the owner would not separate the beach from the balance of the property.   The plan was to acquire the property, retain the beach and access for public use and sell the balance of the property in order to generate funds to purchase more waterfront as opportunities arose.  The vision was to recapture over years, perhaps decades, beach and waterfront for the public, something that I refer to as a birthright of the residents of our community.  You may recall that the Town Council of the day adopted a policy to guide future acquisitions of waterfront property.

In short order, the Town demolished the dilapidated cottages on the Bay Beach property, thus inadvertently opening up the vista to the lake.  Not surprisingly, the residents liked it.  The majority expressed their views in the 2002 Charette, in subsequent consultations and during the preparation of the Crystal Beach Neighbourhood Plan.   This led Council to revisit “the plan” for the property at the end of 2005. 

 No community can fulfill its true potential without the support of the residents.  I have heard all of you express the sentiment, at one time or another, that volunteers are the backbone of our community.  This is as true of Crystal Beach as of anywhere else.  

 I have concern about how the proposal for development at Bay Beach has divided our community.  I am concerned when I am approached by dedicated, long-term volunteers of the area who feel that they are being ignored and who despair that what they have worked toward over the past 15 years is in jeopardy.  To be clear, when I speak of “volunteers”, I mean those individuals who have committed time, energy and, often, their own resources, to improving, revitalizing and promoting Crystal Beach, not those individuals who seem to pop up at every opportunity to oppose and criticize anything the Town proposes to do, no matter what.  I understand that the dedicated volunteers of Crystal Beach are not unanimous in their views regarding Bay Beach.  But a large majority do not agree with the Town’s current proposal.  I believe that for you to proceed without having due regard to their views will hamper your efforts to build and to guide this community.

 Crystal Beach has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts over the past decade.  With the continued efforts of the dedicated volunteers and the municipality, it will prosper and be an important aspect of the life of Fort Erie.  The challenge before you is to maintain the energy, the passion and the commitment of those volunteers, while capturing the opportunities for success in that part of our community.

Therefore, let your decisions regarding Crystal Beach and the future of the Bay Beach property be guided by a vision – a clear vision – for the community.  Not staff’s vision.  Not just your vision.  But a vision that encompasses that of those who have committed themselves to the success and prosperity of their neighbourhood and this community.”

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