Penetanguishene council, staff, the town's technical advisory committee and Sajecki Planning got together this week to hammer out further aspects of the town's much ballyhooed town dock project.
Previously, the initial presentation of the town dock plan had come under fire by concerned residents who felt the 15-year, multi-million dollar rejuvenation project was somewhat of a foregone conclusion without their input.
“We hope to establish that shared vision for the future of the town dock, that we can take away and use as direction into the plan,” said David Sajecki, partner and co-founder of Sajecki Planning. “We know we haven’t hit a plan that we have full buy-in behind so the idea today is to find where some of those changes would like to be seen.”
Brought up repeatedly in the first half of the two-hour workshop was the town’s agreement with World Famous Dock Lunch owner Nick Boudouris, concerning his two landlocked pieces of property during a 1984 land swap deal. The town received water rights and the adjacent waterfront sidewalk in return for Boudouris gaining parking in front of the Dock Lunch as well as a right-of-way access to his two landlocked properties for zoning bylaw purposes.
Coun. George Vadeboncoeur agreed with council that the 1984 agreement should be examined with further scrutiny in regards to the upcoming rejuvenation plan, but made it known that it should be done in the spirit of a partnership with Boudouris for mutual success.
“Just like in 1984, members of council had a vision of what they’d like the dock to look like; well now we have a new vision emerging, and maybe that can be incorporated into this new agreement.”
One point of contention from council and residents was the proposed phase 3 urban beach, which received great blow-back.
The proposal was defended by Sajecki who described the sand-filled area without water access as an attractor for the town dock, but admitted that the plan works without the beach.
“I want to know why we would want to invent something,” responded Coun. Dan LaRose, “when a three-minute walk to the west, we have it all there now and natural. We have a walkway, we have a picnic area, we have real sand on a real beach that’s at the real water. So why would we want to create something that’s not real?”
LaRose continued to raise salient points about the short-term view regarding the project. As parking for the town dock was suggested to move to the dog park or curling club to increase space, LaRose described the added inconveniences of transporting family members and boat supplies further from the dock parking than necessary.
Coun. Brian Cummings proposed futuristic ideas for solutions that haven’t been invented yet, such as a vertical rack storage system to aide the launch ramp, similar to those seen in marinas.
“This is a 15-year project,” Cummings rationalized. “I hate to say it, but most of us won’t even be here to see the realization of this project. But it’s expansion, it’s tourism, it’s enhancing our park, and I think with the drawings the way they are, someone in the future is going to look at that and say: ‘Spot on.’
“We’re not guessing the future; we’re staying in the past.”
LaRose found it hard to see the upside to a project that taxpayers would be paying for the next 25 years.
Sajecki attempted to gain feedback during the workshop for further phase 3 elements, but LaRose wondered if such a far-reaching concept even needed to be discussed since the phase 1 and 2 parts hadn’t been worked out, and no cost other than “too high level and significantly more” for phase 3 were provided by Sajecki.
Members working on the town dock secondary plan and master plan announced a summer break to review and refine details from the workshop as well as public feedback, and are expected to return in fall of 2021.
Public wanting to provide further input to the process can visit the Connect Penetanguishene website, where information regarding the project is available.
