Shoreline inhabitants choose seashore growth protest ‘to the sand’

PORT ELGIN, ONT. —
Building sand sculptures is not generally finished in protest, but the construction of a sand product of a industrial enhancement proposed for Port Elgin’s waterfront is how some job opponents have resolved to get their message throughout to website visitors and locals alike.

“Two years in the past, Saugeen Shores council accredited a 50-year lease of a substantial part of our waterfront. They’ve accepted a huge commercial development to be constructed below and they did it right before they experienced acceptance from the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority,” says the sand sculpture organizer, and Port Elgin Seaside Preservers founder, Patricia Frank.

Cedar Crescent Village, a private task to be designed on community land, was authorised by Saugeen Shores council back again in 2019.

The venture — featuring eating places, outlets, a convention centre and volleyball courts — was meant to be open by now, but COVID-19 delays and problems around likely flooding have slowed it down.

The fate of the job now sits in the arms of the Saugeen Valley Conservation Authority.

“We’re with any luck , obtaining close to a point exactly where we can get beneath development. Anyone whose built nearly anything will know these things go for a longer time than you want them to, but hopefully we’re acquiring shut,” says Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau.

Charbonneau says council approved the $7-10 million project and a 50-year lease for the reason that people and website visitors have instructed them they want extra retailers and firms down at the seashore.

“We’ve heard people notify us they want far more features down at the waterfront. Whether that is a cafe, far more retail options for boaters at the harbour, so we want to see that shift ahead. It is a little something the folks of Saugeen Shores have been intrigued in looking at for a extensive time,” he claims.

Not so, suggests Frank, who says she hears from undertaking opponents each single day.

“It’s fighting with parking for beachgoers. They are preparing a 300-individual function corridor. Our feeling and the view of most of Saugeen Shores is that this seaside does not require a 300-man or woman function hall,” she claims.

Irrespective of whether the project moves forward, or stays a sand-centered product, lies in the fingers of the area conservation authority. There is no timeline for a decision.

“It was meant to be open up very last July 1. Nothing is going to start at least until the slide. All the approvals have to be in place,” says Frank.

“Hopefully, we’re pretty near,” states Charbonneau.