Accidental Beach let us look at river in a new way
It appeared at the end of an Edmonton summer like a mirage, an accidental beach in the heart of the city. And for a few sweet weeks, we flocked there with our kids and our dogs and our picnic hampers and our volleyballs, to paddle and swim and play in the sand.
And then the snow fell, the ice formed and our beach vanished, leaving us to wonder if it would ever return.
Could it be more than an ephemeral marvel? Could we make it last?
That was Ward 8 Coun. Ben Henderson’s question, too.
Back in August, while the rest of us were wading, Henderson asked city staff to research and report on what it would take to keep the beach, even after the bridge construction which caused it to form, serendipitously, is complete.
The report will be discussed at city council’s urban planning committee meeting Nov. 29.
It makes for gloomy reading for beach fans.
Keeping a beach in Cloverdale, says the report, would require a comprehensive planning and environmental review, involving the city, the province and Ottawa.
The city has no jurisdiction over the riverbank or the river. The beach isn’t city property. While the city owns the parkland above the river, the province owns the shoreline. Transport Canada and the federal Department of Fisheries and Ocean are responsible for the water. So anything done to make the beach permanent would need provincial and federal regulatory approval. (According to Alberta Environment, the city would also need to apply to lease the land, under both the Public Lands Act and the Water Act.)
The city estimates all that regulatory argy-bargy could take four years to complete — including technical reports, feasibility studies, community engagement and Indigenous consultation. The city would also need to consider water quality, water safety and the inconvenience to the Cloverdale residents. (Although Alberta Environment, for its part, says its approval process would take only six to 12 months.)
A sea of red tape, just so people can play in the water? It seems like a satire of civil service at its most baroque.
Instead of the beach, the report recommends people focus instead on a 2013 plan to build a “sand experience” at Louise McKinney Park — a safe, controlled “beach play area” that would not actually touch the unpredictable river. City council is to consider a plan for that man-made fake beach in early 2018.
But a carefully planned artificial “sand experience” without any access to the water is a pale shadow of a real beach that allows people to frolic in the North Saskatchewan River, in the midst of the valley’s wild beauty.
Despite the killjoy tone of the report, however, Henderson isn’t giving up.
“I don’t think we should just say this is too hard, and walk away from it,” he said. “This is a typical administration report that comes up with 100 reasons why we can’t do something. But that doesn’t mean we can’t do it.”
For years, he said, city councils have tried to find ways to encourage people to engage with the river.
“And then, this beach showed up. We didn’t have to pour sand. The river did it itself. It’s a natural beach, albeit assisted by a slight intervention in the river. And I think it’s an asset worth exploring.”
Since the construction berms that changed the river flow will remain in place until 2020, Henderson says the city has the time to work with the province, to maintain the sandbar and to minimize the impacts and nuisances for Cloverdale residents.
If there are real environmental issues, he acknowledges, keeping the beach may not be possible. But otherwise, he wants people to go on enjoying it, with as little government interference as possible.
That said, the beach may not be there when the snow melts.
“The river may wipe it out next year. We just don’t know,” said Henderson. “There are always sandbars in the river, and they can come and go and move around.”
Maybe that’s as it should be. Our love affair with Accidental Beach was a glorious summer fling, a whirlwind romance, made all the more exciting because we knew it might not last.
But if we have to engineer it and plan it and get the permits and the approvals, it won’t be quite the same.
Accidental Beach taught us to see the river in new ways, as something we could play with. I hope we never forget that lesson. And beach or no beach, I hope we continue to find ways to make the river not just something we look at, but something we touch.