The residents of the Beachway Park are not the easiest people to deal with. They, rightfully so, feel threatened. Their local government wants to put them out on the street and bulldoze their homes. The residents tend to become emotional very quickly – so much so that the city has turned to a facilitator who is quite good at managing difficult people in a public setting.
The city held a public workshop to get input on design possibilities for the Beachway. More than 70 people turned up – lots of discussion but until the CBR came out no one knew what the results of the workshop were.
Some of these encroachments could be of an extent and nature that without them, the viability of the private properties might be substantially impacted. This ongoing management issue has not been dealt with in this report and will be examined further following the consideration of the Master Plan vision for the Regional Park in a coordinated and fair manner.
An overriding concern is that this report, the CBR will get little in the way of public exposure, not be subjected to vigorous city-wide debate. As a result, we may well find ourselves with a community that could be made much more viable, but will be lost and become desolate, abandoned and truly unsafe – all to satisfy the dreams of planners out of touch with modern urban realities.
The Regional people are doing what they have to do – but not much more. The city is just at the table listening – not much in the way of imagination coming from city council.
Stirling Todd on the left, Senior Regional planner who cut his teeth as a planner while working with former Toronto Mayor David Crombie on that city’s Waterfront Trust, talks with Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who is the best advocate the Beachway residents have; something that doesn’t go down all that well with Ward 2 Councillor Rick Craven.
Councillor Craven was instrumental in the creation of a joint Greater Bay Area sub-committee that looks into problems both Burlington and Hamilton have to deal with. Randall Reef and the LaSalle Marina project are two examples.
The creation of this committee was very much Craven’s doing. When motivated he is very capable of making things happen. He sits on the Regional Waterfront Parks Citizens Advisory Committee where he has significant influence.
Mayor Goldring also sits on this committee with Craven – which is not necessarily a good thing; both men sat on the Theatre Burlington board that oversees the Performing Arts Centre and said little at council meetings about the Centre’s financial needs ballooned from half a million dollars to more than a cool million every year for the next couple of years.
On the CBR Craven did not have much to say at city council committee meetings where he has instead let the bureaucrats do the talking. At the early May meeting Craven did ask those delegating if they were “aware of the provincial policy related to properties on the Beachway”. Did you ask your lawyer or your real estate agents about any provincial policy”, Craven asked.
There are those within city hall, at very senior levels, who feel having what one called “a bit of a bohemian community down there” would be good for the city. However, the sentiments of people at city hall are not going to keep a community in Beachway Park – the citizens down there are going to have to get creative and take their story to the people of Burlington. Should they fail to do that – a significant opportunity to build good community will be lost and the bureaucrats who work with data and paper will have won.
The calendar setting out the time frames for getting to the point where all the background information has been collected and the presentations made is as follows:
A presentation being made to the Regional Waterfront Parks Advisory Committee: June 26 and August 21, 2013
Then a presentation to the Conservation Halton Board on June 27, 2013
Then it comes back to Burlington’s Community Services Committee Sept 11, 2013
Then to the Region of Halton Planning and Public works committee October 3, 2013,
That October meeting is where the direction to be taken will be determined and the actual creation of the Master Plan will begin.
In reality that is a very aggressive schedule and will probably not be met – but the Beachway residents should not rely on the inability of regional bureaucrats to get anything done on a timely basis to save their community. They need to stop grumbling as they sit on their porches or in their back yards and complain to anyone walking by. The residents’ also know who the “encroachers” are – deal with them.
