At Monday night’s Council meeting (Sept. 25/22), residents Peter Storck and Peter Little spoke out in the public forum regarding the proposed Cedar Crescent Village (CCCV) development on Port Elgin’s Main Beach.
Storck said that the proposed development has moved through several changes and has been a “fluid, frequently changing concept with respect to location, functionality and architecture. The project has been a procedural and public relations disaster.”
He added that a motion has been brought forward to declare the land as surplus to accommodate a 50-year lease. “The motion also directs staff after the meeting on October 11th to declare in local newspapers the land as surplus, a step required in advance of selling by the Surplus Land By-law. There is no explanation why this does not obligate the town to sell. In looking at the two By-laws, one pertains to the process of buying and selling of surplus lands and the other to simply adding land and closed road allowances that could be declared surplus, I fail to see why the property where such a development could occur should be declared surplus because it involves a 50-year lease. The By-law is silent on this although staff states the designation is required to support the registration of the lease on title is a vague statement. The exercise seems to be nothing more than legal poopidybink (?) except that once declared surplus in a legal sense could be available for sale at some future date, unless specifically excluded by another By-law or some sort of binding guarantee. If you will not be deterred from this commercial development, which I strongly oppose, then I ask Council to change the length of the lease to a term that does not trigger the surplus land By-law. The message being thrown out to the legally attuned public, myself included, is that Council is preparing to sell off and sell us out.”
Second speaker in the Open Public Forum was Peter Little, a long-standing businessman and resident of Port Elgin. “I am here about declaring part of our waterfront as surplus to execute or confirm a 50-year lease with the CCV. What kind of madness compels a body entrusted with the well-being of Port Elgin to declare surplus its most valuable asset and to declare part of Port Elgin’s most famous beach as surplus is giving away an asset that is envied by every surrounding community. As well as being valued by Port Elgin residents, our beach has been drawing visitors from near and far for over a century. They come here to escape. The waterfront has been the largest attraction to this town since it was settled. Economically, the beach has contributed to the financial growth of Port Elgin through accommodation rentals, food services and miscellaneous shopping for groceries, fuel and clothing, etc. People have been walking, fishing, playing and relaxing on this sand for over a hundred years. Despite any other any other economic conditions that stumbled, tourism has always succeeded. A testament to that is that many of the dwellings on Green, Mill and Elgin (streets) were seasonal until Ontario Hydro started building the Bruce and needed year-round accommodations. Replacing the sand and open spaces with buildings and pavement is going to reduce available sun-bathing space and parking. This doesn’t make any sense when we are already struggling to accommodate people on our over-crowded beach. A large development of this nature belongs uptown or along the corridor somewhere where people expect to find fine dining and entertainment. In this increasingly crazy world, people are more than ever counting on being able to visit the tranquility of our unspoiled beach. It is a place where everyone can escape commercial activity, bright lights and pavement and get into the sights and sounds of sand, water, sunsets, seagulls and children playing. A major development does not belong on our waterfront. For many years, we had benign activities and entertainment on the waterfront – tennis, weekly carnivals, markets, gift shops and a miniature steam engine, weekly bandshell concerts and swimming lessons. What happened to all of that? An organic development for beach and sailing amenities would probably be welcomed but should be no larger than the former train and should be in keeping with the uniqueness of the beach. Because of the congestion and other issues like the embarrassing disrepair of the beach, people are already finding other beaches to visit. A large development on the beach will not attract more visitors to our town, I think it will drive them away.”
He pointed out that Council has been “entrusted with the welfare of the community”. “Do the right thing and protect our precious waterfront.”
