FROM ACCIDENT TO AMENITY?

City needs to keep the beach: Staples

Local politicians and government administrators face a major test of their competence and flexibility.

Out of nowhere and completely by accident, Edmonton was handed a great gift in Accidental Beach last year, which owed its existence to berms built for LRT bridge construction. Thousands flocked to the beach in the river valley after word got out of its existence.

But will we squander this opportunity? Will bureaucratic complexities, red tape and risk aversion stop the beach from becoming permanent?

We should get a somewhat clearer picture Wednesday. Council meets to discuss the first comprehensive report on whether it’s feasible to have a permanent beach on the North Saskatchewan River.

There were some good signals from the report, but also some worrying ones, such as this line: “The time required to complete all planning and design work and seek provincial and federal regulatory approvals for an urban beach is estimated to be four to six years.”

Four to six years?

I can only shake my head. The current rock berms, or cofferdams, built for construction of the Tawatina LRT bridge, will likely remain until 2020. The beach will likely keep forming each summer until then. But it would nice to know by 2020 if we can keep the Accidental Beach or not. It’s not too much to ask that government have a plan to proceed by then.

It’s clearly time to get moving — and the good news is there’s nothing in the report that spells doom for the project.

The feasibility study looked closely at six sites for permanent beaches: “While none of the locations were ideal, of the six evaluated, Cloverdale Beach is considered the most favourable compared to the other locations.”

Accidental Beach rated as “Excellent” when comes to the size of the existing sandbar and the closeness of the sandbar to shore. It got a “Very Good” score when it comes to stability of the opposite bank. It scored lowest, rating only a “Fair” grade,” for its impact on fish and wildlife habitat and for parking, though there were no bonus marks given for its proximity to the soon-to-beopen Muttart LRT station. Notably, the beach did not receive a “Poor” grade in any category.

“I think it’s kind of passed the smell test,” says water resources engineer Darren Shepherd of SG1 Water Consulting Ltd.

“With sound engineering and the right safety measures and collaboration in place, it still remains very feasible.”

The river bank and bottom is provincial land, with the river water controlled by the federal government.

Shepherd, as an expert in this field who has successfully navigated the various hurdles on several recreational water projects, doesn’t see the four- to six-year window for the project as unreasonable. Perhaps some patience is in order here.

It’s no surprise to see significant obstacles to getting permission to proceed, says Coun. Ben Henderson. “It’s not going to be an easy thing to do and (city council) won’t be the major obstacle. The uphill battle will be with other orders of government ... It’s not the city that’s going to take four to six years. You’re now talking about two other orders of bureaucracy. And my joke is that we do bureaucracy fairly well, but compared to the province and feds, we’re amateurs.”

All that said, it’s now easy for politicians to see how popular such a beach is, Shepherd says: “We want that access to the water and I think that it almost behooves the city to do something about it, and this might be that project.”

Creating a permanent beach might take up area that was formerly fish habitat, but that can be compensated for by creating fish habitat in other parts of the river.

“There’s nothing that would be a show stopper to stop someone from proceeding to the next level of study,” Shepherd says of the report.

Essentially, the report generated no red lights, but a number of yellows. What usually follows yellow is red, but in this case, the city, the province and the feds must find a way to proceed.

Accidental Beach is already hugely popular, a game-changer in the valley. To fail to take advantage of this unexpected bounty would be a sure sign of incompetence.