Fort Erie Times:

Furthering the right of passage cause

Mark Ladan
Local News - Saturday, May 19, 2007 Updated @ 11:58:24 AM

If Fort Erie Town councillor Bob Steckley has his way, any waterfront property owner who has put up fences or any other barrier that blocks passage along the shore will soon be forced to take them down.

At Monday's council meeting Steckley introduced a notice of motion that would amend the Town's waterfront road allowance encroachment policy. His motion calls for all "soft" encroachments onto public shoreline road allowances, including fences and hedges to be taken down by the adjacent property owners.
If property owners don't comply Town staff would remove the barriers and bill them accordingly.

Steckley believes only one group will have a problem with his proposal.

"There's no doubt the offending property owners are going to be upset," he said.

"They've had use of the property all this time and now they're going to have to move off it. I don't see anyone else having any problem with this, except the offending property owners."

Steckley also believes he will have enough support from his council colleagues to get his motion passed. He notes that during the election campaign last fall all the candidates were asked by the Shorewalk Association if they supported such a measure. All of the sitting council members said they would agree to a policy like this.

Members of the public will be able to voice their opinions one way or another on Steckley's proposal during a public meeting on June 11.

The policy will come up for a final vote June 18.

If you have ever been bothered walking on a beach in Ontario than you should join and support the Ontario Shorewalkers Association. Why should anybody have to feel that taking a walk on a Great Lakes beach is some covert operation? Walking access to all the shorelines in the Great Lakes and oceans should be a right with free passage.,

Google Ontario Shorewalkers Association and join if you are so inclined and sick and tired of mole ladies badgering and hassling you when you walk on the beach.

http://www.forterietimes.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=573318&catname=Local%20News&classif=News



Another step to open up the Lake Erie shore is expected to be taken at Monday's Fort Erie Town council meeting.




Approval expected Monday for new encroachment policy

Mark Ladan
Local News - Saturday, June 16, 2007 Updated @ 8:02:04 PM

"I think we won."

That declaration from Ontario Shorewalk Association president Garry Skerrett on Monday evening after Town council-in-committee's approval a new encroachment policy that included an amendment from Ward 3 Coun. Bob Steckley.

Steckley's amendment to the policy, which narrowly passed in a 4-3 vote, would force waterfront property owners to remove so-called "soft" encroachments from shoreline road allowances. The definition of a soft encroachment includes fences and hedges that have been erected to block passage of pedestrians along the shoreline road allowances.
Any buildings, such as garages or houses that have been built on the public road allowance would be reviewed on a case by case basis to determine if they should be removed.

The final version of the encroachment policy, in bylaw form, will come back to council this Monday. Skerrett is concerned that the policy could change again before the final vote, because of the closeness of last Monday's vote on Steckley's amendment.

"Yes, I am concerned, because for the last year Town staff have been adamant that they are going to offer encroachment agreements," he said.

At last Monday's meeting, several waterfront landowners asked council to vote down Steckley's motion. They said they are not against people walking along the beaches of Lake Erie, but did not want to see a policy that didn't allow encroachments. They're worried that council was giving in to Shorewalk's call for a "zero tolerance" policy. Skerrett said his organization never wanted such a policy.

"We do not have any designs on removing buildings or garages or shoreline protection. Those are the three permanent things we can seem to identify and we're quite happy with the case by case scenario, because they're all different."



Distributed without profit to those involved in research of freedom for walking on beaches and for those involved in education.

Great News on Erie...
My Computer was down for a week and a half, lost all my mail addresses, please write to fkunkel1@cogeco.ca and I can add you again.

Take a look at what happened in Fort Erie on Monday at the town meeting. The Canadian and U.S. press hasn't picked up on this or reported it yet:

http://www.shorewalk.ca/


Shorewalker Canada:

ENCROACHMENTS
MUST GO!!!

JUNE 18, 2007

Fort Erie council tonight passed a by-law that will protect the public’s waterfront lands against encroachments of all kinds. All six councilors, Bob Steckley, Richard Shular, Tim Whitfield, Sandy Annunziata, Ann Marie Noyes and Martha Lockwood voted to prohibit encroachments on waterfront road allowances. A dissenting vote was cast by Mayor Doug Martin.

Shorewalk has been fighting this issue since July 10, 2006 when a staff proposal was presented that would have called for encroachment agreements on 9 of 10 encroachments encountered during waterfront road allowance surveys.

The encroached land would have been registered on the encroacher’s land titles and further entrenched through individual by-laws. None of that is going to happen now.

The Town will consider encroachment agreements for buildings and shoreline protective works which will have to be permitted by council. Fences and other “soft” encroachments will, however, have to be removed or moved back to property owner’s own land.
Most importantly the public retains ownership of all its waterfront road allowance lands.

A tremendous side benefit of this protracted battle has been the strengthening of Shorewalk. Our membership has quadrupled in one year from about 300 members last July to over 1200 today, much of that increase due to the efforts of our membership chair, Betty Vanosch. Dozens of other supporters and executive have worked hard in many ways including coming out to sit through long council meetings, fund raise, campaign, and build membership.

To all, an enthusiastic THANKS A LOT!

Garry Skerrett,
Shorewalk president.

PS - It’s never over. Public meeting on Wednesday, June 20 Town Hall re. drain pipe possibility for Thunder Bay Beach. 6.30 p.m. This will be our monthly Shorewalk meeting





Fence Encroachments Threaten Public Waterfront!

June 1, 2007