The recent controversy over the Georgian Beach Road and the cost of the litigation surrounding the issue has prompted many letters to the editor from many fronts.
I recognize that the cost of the litigation to uphold the right to passage along the waterfront, as per the lawful bylaw, causes concern and as one of the many residents living in the midst of the furor, I would like share my perspective regarding the South Georgian Beach road dispute.
There have been several articles published whose bias has been sympathetic to those residents who have erected the barriers and others that berate the council for excessive spending. The cost to the municipality is concerning to us all. Those costs have been incurred and escalated due to the refusal of the four owners who have erected the barriers and blocked passage to acknowledge proof of municipal ownership through an unbiased land survey and their continued legal efforts to circumvent the established bylaws.
To date, there has been little attempt to present the view of the other taxpaying residents of North and South Georgian Beach who have been impacted by the erection of those barriers.
My family and the other residents of the Georgian Beach community have been paying municipal and school taxes and contributing to local fund raising for over 50 years. As taxpayers, the residents of North and South Georgian Beach, who have requested the action of council, are simply asking for their rights and those of the rest of the municipality to be respected and the bylaws enacted by the municipality be upheld and enforced equally throughout said municipality.
As taxpaying cottagers/beach residents, do we not have the same rights as the rest of the municipality? Namely, to be represented by our elected council and have the bylaws upheld. As taxpayers and community members, do we not all have the right to expect that the council ensure the laws governing our municipality be upheld – whether they impact one or many?
If you were the one, how would it feel to be told “Sorry your rights aren’t worthy to fight for because it is too expensive to fight for justice for just one person”?
My family and neighbours have been directly impacted by the erection of the barriers on South Georgian Beach. Over the past 50 years, all have had the opportunity to take leisurely walks along the waterfront, both when there was a dedicated road and after the partial road washout, to visit friends and family on both sides of the beach.
Since the erection of the disputed barriers many of the South and North Beach residents no longer have that ability.
Due to the impassability around the barriers, friends and families who live only cottages away from each other now have to drive out to the 7th line and then back down to the current beach road to visit each other or clamber over the large boulders to access the beach for passage around those barriers.
For many of the elder cottagers and those with mobility challenges, clambering over boulders to access the beach to circumnavigate the barriers is impossible. Great animosity is felt by those who have chosen to navigate around the barriers. The owners who have erected the barriers and those few who support them have been outwardly hostile towards their fellow neighbours who choose to navigate around the barriers.
The intent of maintaining access on the beachfront has never been to resurrect the former roadway, but to maintain the public foot and bicycle traffic as has been going on for the past 50 years for not only the beach residents but all residents of the municipality.
The barriers erected on the beach have impacted the former friendliness, tranquility and peace of the entire neighbourhood, diminished the enjoyment of the cottage life along the beach and pitted neighbour against neighbour. It is a great shame.
As people gravitate from the city to our join our small community, let us hope that this is an isolated incident and not the portent of things to come.
Sincerely,
Sherry Snider, Meaford
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