By Staff
November 5th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
We were asked by an Aldershot resident:
Why is it that a private yacht club at LaSalle Park can usurp the public access to this waterfront by placing their docks and pier anchors on publicly owned property?
There is no longer any room to park cars creating a traffic nightmare, fish for those who enjoy this or observe/photograph the multitude of waterfront fowl from the east side of the pier. Furthermore, it is an eye sore.
LaSalle Park – bring about a boat on its way to the water.
Did this private yacht club get permission from the city to do this?
Did this private yacht club pay the city for utilizing the public pier for storage?
Who is going to pay for the damage to the inter-locking brick and asphalt……tax-payers?
The response from John Birch, the LaSalle Park Marina Association President was pretty direct:
We are well past the time when this kind of narrative about being a ‘private club’ being simply an honest mistake.
In our opinion, it is a dystopic and amoral Trumpian disinformation trick with the statement untruthfully trying to load and prejudice the public narrative. Sadly, it is the world we live in now. However, the statement is entirely misleading and factually untrue.
The facts are:
LaSalle Park Marina Association is a registered not-for-profit corporation administrating for free the City of Burlington’s Open Public Marina. The City owns the asset LaSalle Park Marina, LPMA paid for it.
Again, LaSalle Park Marina is the City of Burlington’s Open Public Marina.
LaSalle Park Marina doesn’t store boats, the Burlington Sailing & Boating Club.
The facts are:
LPMA is permitted, per our Joint Venture Agreement with City of Bburlington (CoB) ; and CoB’s lease with HPA, to store LaSalle Park Marina’s docks onshore atop LaSalle Pier where sited. Has been thus for 37 years.
In addition, some floating Wavebreak Modules are ashore with City permission for LPMA to again repair these modules, which any lay person can clearly see plainly are damaged.
There is plenty of room to park cars currently. Very few parking spots have been taken up, and the few that are is with the City’s expressed consent during the repairs.
There will be no damage to the asphalt or asphalt imprinted “interlocking brick” which is in fact molded asphalt.
The Wavebreak modules where specifically placed the way they were to minimize, as much as possible, the impact to public vista to the South from LaSalle Pier, while we do the needful repairs.
The projected repair schedule is over six weeks, from November 1, weather permitting as an arc welder is employed to repair. The mussels are vacuumed up and disposed of properly following our international Blue Flag certified environmental protocols.
The proposed Rock Habitat Safe Harbour Wavebreak will in fact solve all issues, including winter storage of docks ashore (as the docks will remain in the water year round behind the Rock Wavebreak) when built. That will greatly improve public access to all parking spots on LaSalle Pier year round, and provide substantial fish and wildlife habitat per the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change’s approval and directions on the EA to proceed to next steps.
We are entirely process people, and are following due process.
We keep the City informed of any material developments, pro or con, having an impact on their asset LaSalle Park Marina in a timely manner; and, as a professional courtesy copy the Ward Councillor when appropriate.
Birch is quite right – let’s stop this nattering away about the Marina being a private yacht club.
“…a dystopic and amoral Trumpian disinformation trick with the statement untruthfully trying to load and prejudice the public narrative.” Really? Spare us the histrionics John.
Your docks, expanded boat storage pen, and wave breaks currently take up over half of the PUBLIC space on the pier (not a “handful of parking spots”-let me guess, commenter Dave Lawson’s a sailor too). It’s a complete and utter mess.
If I were a cynical person, I would think that the present situation at the LaSalle pier was being stage-managed to prejudice the public narrative in favour of a new, publicly funded, + 10 million dollar break wall. “You want this mess gone? The break wall will solve the problem!”
Most residents of Aldershot are aware of the fact that you are not a “private yacht club.” You’re more like a floating trailer park that squats on public property, taking an ever-increasing share of public property and resources for a vanishingly small percentage of residents to indulge their hobby. Has been thus for 37 years.
In my opinion, you are the very definition of a bad neighbour. I invite residents to take a spin by LaSalle Park, look at the horrible mess you’ve made of our pier, and decide for themselves.
Hard to believe LaSalle used to be home to an amusement park in the 20s
Ah the good old days of the Marina, when it was a small operation and the people that used it were proud to say they were the people that paid for it.
Now the seafarers appear at Council, first mate’s cap in hand for a handout from the public purse. They’re entitled to their entitlements they say, just like other boaters in this once great province. We are not amused.
The entitled few are a small part of Burlington’s population, paying a disproportionate amount of its taxes. While I might only aspire to part of this elite segment of the population, there is no disengineutiy amongst its ranks. Those who dwell just below this esteemed rank pay nearly as much in taxes and benefit only on par with the average Burlingtonian, which translates into a pretty good deal.
In other words…get over it…it’s handful of parking spots.
Absolutely correct Mr. Birch! I believe that a “private yacht club” would stand primarily if not entirely on its own merits and finances and would not have such a cosy, back-stop arrangement with its host city. The LaSalle Park Marina, in my opinion, is neither a true community resource nor a tourist attraction. It serves ‘the entitled few’ and, given the state of Burlington’s infrastructure deficit and continuously rising tax burden on its citizens, CoB support is both unjustified and unjustifiable. A “joint venture” – in what? BTW, what a strange though semantically correct use of the term “amoral”.
Wow, a lot of anger for a misinformed question!
First, I did not know that La Salle Yacht club was a joint venture agreement with the city of Burlington. Thank you for that correction but to call this “a dystopic and amoral Trumpian disinformation trick with the statement untruthfully trying to load and prejudice the public narrative” is way over the top and somewhat telling.
Your Joint Venture Agreement with City of Bburlington (CoB) ; and CoB’s lease with HPA, to store LaSalle Park Marina’s docks onshore atop LaSalle Pier where sited is not in your homepage, and if it was, could have alleviated many concerns.
“There is plenty of room to park cars currently. Very few parking spots have been taken up, and the few that are is with the City’s expressed consent during the repairs” is truly an overblown Trumpism misrepresentation of the truth. I would guess that you have taken about 2/3 of the parking spaces and the full east side of the pier where fishing usually occurs.
Your deal with the city for public waterfront property storage, that is used my many non-yacht individuals, should be more transparent in your homepage.
Sorry to have hit a raw nerve, mate.