Effort to halt beach condo project fails
A last-ditch effort to stop approval of a controversial 10-storey condo and housing subdivision near Waverly Beach fell short at Fort Erie town hall on Monday.
Despite passing the draft plan approval stage earlier this month, the Harbourtown Village project was back before councillors this week where amendments to the town’s official plan were required.
Usually a routine endeavour, the project faced significant opposition from Ward 5 Coun. Don Lubberts, who cited three separate issues as reason enough to scrap the vote and delay the project’s progress.
Of primary concern to Lubberts was what he perceived as a lack of community benefits to the town in exchange for granting the condo tower approval. When the previous condo tower project at Bay Beach came before council, the town negotiated $3 million worth of ‘community benefits’ the developer was going to build for the public, which included washrooms and a community pavilion. For the condo tower at Waverly Beach, the town is not specifically getting a community benefits package, however, the developer has agreed to return about 2.8 hectares of land that can be set aside for bike and hiking paths to be used by the public.
“I want to postpone this until we get a clear understanding of what’s available to this town,” said Lubberts. “I want to bring forward a motion to request community benefits from this developer, because I’m not prepared to give up $3 million in benefits just so this can move forward.”
As explained by the town’s planning director, Rick Brady, drawing a direct comparison between the two condo towers is a misrepresentation of the situations.
At Bay Beach, the town was transferring public land to the developer in order to build the condo tower, and as part of that deal, the community benefits were added.
In the case of the Waverly Beach condo, the property is already owned by the developer, and the town is not conveying any transfer of land, so its ability to demand or negotiate for a community benefit package doesn’t exist.
When Lubberts’ motion failed to find a seconder to allow it to hit the floor for debate, he became irate and began admonishing the rest of council, until Mayor Wayne Redekop declared him out of order.
“That’s fine, I’m happy to be out of order,” shouted Lubberts, before leaving the council chambers.
The mayor then declared him out of order a second time, and added that he was being “discourteous” to the rest of council by continuing to interject comments even after his motions had failed.
“I don’t think what you’re saying is entirely accurate, but, you’re entitled to your views,” said Redekop.
Before things came to a head over the community benefits issue, Lubberts also tried two other avenues through which he felt the condo approval should be delayed or denied.
First, he cited a need to contact Heritage Canada. The War of 1812 was, according to Lubberts, fought along the shores of Fort Erie, and although there is no evidence it was ever fought at the location of the proposed condo, he said that didn’t matter and the site holds historical value to the war nonetheless.
Lubberts also suggested there are important Indigenous artifacts buried at the site.
None of the arguments from Lubberts in favour of delaying the bylaw to approve the housing project gained any traction with the rest of council, and the vote passed 6-1.