MP protests land sale near Ojibway Shores
Any industrial use would inflict environmental `damage': Masse
Windsor West MP Brian Masse is sounding the alarm after a large vacant waterfront property to the immediate north of environmentally significant Ojibway Shores was put on the market with the seller advertising its prime industrial potential.
“At a time when the City of Windsor is in negotiations with the federal government on initiating the process to establish Ojibway National Urban Park, the potential sale of waterfront land connected to (it) ... is a serious danger to the environment,” Masse (NDP, Windsor West) said Wednesday.
The sale of the privately owned land, he added, could also threaten the future of the adjacent environmentally significant property.
Mayor Drew Dilkens and MP Irek Kusmierczyk (L, Windsor-tecumseh) told the Star this week that talks are ongoing between Ottawa and the city to preserve Ojibway Shores — a 33-acre (13.4-hectare) waterfront property owned by the Windsor Port Authority — and link it with the city's Ojibway complex to create Canada's second national urban park.
Masse held a news conference at the adjoining privately owned site — used over the past decade as a dumping ground for construction debris — to warn that “any industrial use or development (at that location) would damage Ojibway Shores,” home to many endangered and threatened species.
Ojibway Shores is also the last remaining stretch of undeveloped natural shoreline in Windsor.
In a Colliers International listing that went up Friday, the “ideally located” property adjacent to the new Gordie Howe International Bridge and customs plaza is described as zoned for heavy industry and having direct access to the water for shipping.
With bids being accepted until Sept. 15, the property includes 14 acres (5.7 ha) on land and a water lot of an additional 1.4 acres (0.6 ha), as well as with the potential to acquire 1.4 acres of “surplus” land owned by the authority constructing the Gordie Howe bridge.
“There's been a tremendous amount of interest ... from a variety of end users,” Chris Kerwin, a London-based Colliers broker, told the Star Wednesday.
He said he couldn't comment on who has shown interest in the “very unique property” but that calls have already come in from the United States and Europe.
Zoned heavy industrial with “no restrictions,” owner Francis Kennette of Bridgeport Windsor Marine Terminal said he already has the required permits to open an asphalt or concrete manufacturing plant there now. But he said he shares Masse's view that, given its location next to a busy future international crossing, there could be better uses for the property.
“I agree there's probably a higher and better use for it than as a stone dock — that's part of the mission here,” he said.
“Ideally, it would be something compatible with the new bridge,” said Kennette, whose father purchased the property in the 1980s with plans to operate a gravel dock. He suggests a convention centre, “scenic lookout,” perhaps even a floating riverfront casino, as preferable to the heavy industrial use for which the property is zoned.
Masse, whose letter to the federal government calling for establishment of an Ojibway National Urban Park was unanimously endorsed by city council in May, said the senior government “must acquire this property to ensure (the national park's) ecological integrity, as well as mitigate shoreline erosion and the effects of climate change.”
Kennette said there had been negotiations with the bridge authority years ago and he's had discussions with the city and even Masse in the past, but no agreement could be reached on purchasing the land.
“They've had ample opportunity in the past,” he said, adding there's still time: “They still have an opportunity to make that work.”
Most recently, work was completed in filling in a large portion of the water lot so the property could accommodate a docking facility for freighters. Part of that offshore infill — reducing the water lot footprint from about 3.5 acres to 1.4 acres — was rubble from Windsor's former Grace Hospital.
“Somebody built a bridge — that changes the whole dynamic” of the property's possibilities, said Kennette.
Not to mention its value. He said the recent sale of a 10-acre parcel owned by the Fogolar Furlan for $2 million above the $4 million asking price was something else that caught his family's attention.
Even without the Kennette family's property, Masse said the future of Ojibway Shore as an environmentally protected area is still not a sure thing. Should the Kennette property, officially listed as 120 Broadway St., be targeted for heavy industrial use, Masse said it could risk the “ecological integrity” of the proposed national urban park.
Masse's office is asking Canadians to sign an online House of Commons petition calling on the federal government “to immediately transfer Ojibway Shores to Environment Canada for its long-term protection ... with the ultimate goal of creating Ojibway Shores National Urban Park.”
Kusmierczyk said he mentioned the proposed national urban park in Windsor on a conversation Monday with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and “he said he was happy to hear about this opportunity.” The Liberal government member said there have been “really good discussions” between Parks Canada and the city over the proposal.