The Municipality of Lambton Shores

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Response to Beach Policy (Monteith report, draft, March 2011): In response to your request for comments on the Grand Bend Beach Research and Consultation Initiative, please consider the following: BACKGROUND: The Grand Bend Beach Research and Consultation is the direct result of community disapproval, during the summer of 2010, of the Municipal government’s renting of Grand Bend beaches to volleyball entrepreneurs and their local supporters. This decision to rent the beach was reached largely without community consultation. In the summer of 2010, 800 people signed a petition to protest the renting of the beach (once they discovered the arrangement), and hundreds, in further protest, attended a town meeting. The overwhelming community message was that the community of Grand Bend did not want volleyball on its beaches and did not want the beach rented out to entrepreneurs such as those wanting to run volleyball camps and tournaments from May to October. POINT #1: Currently, at the beginning of the summer of 2011, the Municipality is publicizing the Monteith-Brown recommendations (paid for by the Municipality and community taxpayers), and is once again trying to rent out the beaches, notwithstanding community disapproval. The most important recommendation of this document is contained in the following excerpt, because it relates specifically (although in a carefully veiled way) to the sustained desire on the part of the local Municipal government (and against the wishes of the Grand Bend community…), to have volleyball , and related, for-rent activities, on Grand Bend’s beaches. While these for-profit activities, say Monteith-Brown, should perhaps not take place on long weekends, they are recommended for every other summer day and evening, perhaps from May until October: “As such, it is recommended that the Municipality develop a policy that will prohibit commercial events on long weekends (Victoria Day, Canada Day, August Civic Holiday, and Labour Day), but will allow up to two commercial events on Main Beach during prime season, provided the ecological health of the beach is respected, the event not take up a large portion of the beach, and the event be affiliated with a Lambton Shores community group and/or business. The proposed partnership framework (which can be found in the Partnerships subsection of this Research and Consultation Initiative) should be utilized to ensure that the Municipality’s best interests are served by the relationship. In addition, it is recommended that activities, events and other commercial ventures that take place in Grand Bend, but off-beach, 1 19 Chapter 1
should be supported by the Municipality, in part for their potential to draw visitors to the beach area. For 2011, private beach rates are $218.25 per day (plus hydro)…” ( 46 ). It is also worth noting that the above recommendation to rent the beach during most of the summer season is buried in the body of the report, on page 46, and is not part of the list of supposedly main recommendations in the Executive Summary; In the Executive Summary, instead, readers are reassured that ecology, natural beauty and cleanliness are prominent report concerns. It is eminently clear that the notion of renting the beach to entrepreneurs was resoundingly rejected by concerned community members in the summer of 2010 –yet their rejection is being overridden by the writers of this report (and, presumably, by the Municipality which hired Monteith-Brown). Furthermore, Monteith-Brown appears to misinterpret (or misapply) its own research and solicitation of community opinion. For example, consider the response to statistics describing the Community Feedback Survey. According to this Survey, the majority of respondents valued most (for beach use) Scenic Views, Walking, Playing in the Sand, Sun Tanning, Casual/Unorganized Beach Sports, etc. Fewer than 15% mentioned volleyball, and volleyball was categorized with “Other” activities such as wildlife viewing and kayaking. More than 63% thought “the Beach should be a place for residents to enjoy passive uses.” Additionally, according to the Community Feedback Survey, “camps or clinics (42%), volleyball tournaments (35%), and other sport and recreation tournaments (36%) were preferred not to take place on the beach at all” (37). With these statistics, how can Monteith-Brown pretend to be representing the community? Why bother with community surveys if community preferences are then overridden and discounted? Some of this report’s recommendations, particularly regarding the rental of the beach, directly contradict the results of the Community Feedback Survey, particularly those regarding commercialized beach use and rental. POINT #2: I also object to Monteith-Brown’s recommendation to adopt the New York City- based organization PPS and its 10-point strategies for land use. The “waterfront” examples on PPS’s website are mainly for huge cities such as London, England, Barcelona, Spain, and Sydney, Australia, and none of these waterfronts have the natural beauty, grace and tranquility of Grand Bend’s beaches. Indeed, many of them are large harbors –which Grand Bend is not. Additionally, it strikes me as ironic that on the front cover of this report, Monteith-Brown has included a lovely photograph of Grand Bend at its summer’s best, featuring people engaged in unstructured leisure and play –exactly what the Grand Bend community would prefer its beaches to remain, and which Monteith-Brown and the Municipality wish to replace with volleyball courts and the like. PPS’s waterfront photos, unlike the beach portrayed on the front of this report, are of harbors, concrete paved waterfronts, roads, buildings, etc. –and not many swimmers… Lastly, I question Monteith-Brown’s choice of lakefront models (e.g. Goderich, Kingston, Coburg, etc.), and its omissions of other, more suitable beach models such as Bayfield, Port Franks, Ipperwash and Sarnia, where beaches are preserved rather than assaulted-and they’re not rented out to entrepreneurs. As an alternative model, I suggest Grand Bend’s Municipality consider the management of some beautiful beaches in Sarasota, Florida, particularly Siesta Key , with its large expanse of untouched beach. This beach looks much more like Grand Bend’s beach (albeit on a smaller scale) than any photo on PPS’ website. And please note the following mandate from Sarasota’s Beach Use 20 2
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The Municipality of Lambton Shores

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