Bluewater Park under Intense Scrutiny
By Judith Grant

Undulating waterfront dunes covered with sand cherry bushes and native beach grass, a wetland where children and an occasional blue heron caught tadpoles and frogs and where swamp grasses flourished, and large stable dunes behind that – this is what long time residents around Bluewater Park in the 4th Concession remember. Then, about 15 years ago, the Township levelled the front row of dunes and the wetland vanished. The sand began to blow and shift and the Public Works Department removed loads of it from driveways and roads near the park each year. A gradual hollowing out of the park resulted.

Tiny’s Official Plan sees Bluewater Park as one of the Township’s five major shoreline parks, along with Woodland, Jackson, Balm, and Lafontaine, and envisions it as being zoned “Open Space” and as needing a Master Plan and development.

The first hint that the communities surrounding the park do not support this zoning came at the June 11 public meeting on the new Zoning By-law. On that occasion, a member of the audience questioned the OS zoning and argued that Environmental Protection zoning is needed to guard and rebuild the shore dunes that had been bulldozed. Another attendee questioned the appropriateness of the removal of sand from the Park (as much as 15 to 20 loads annually, according the Manager of Public Works). Yet another presented a plan for dune restoration, prepared by Geoff Peach, of The Lake Huron Centre for Coastal Conservation.

A new group was then formed — the “Bluewater Conservation Authority” — representing residents on Trew Avenue and members of the Bluewater Georgina Wendake Beaches Association and the Bluewater Dunes Ratepayers Corporation. The new group’s website is www.bluewaterdunes.org. It made a presentation to Council on August 8, disputing the Park’s designation as “Major,” asking that the 80’ extension of Trew Avenue into the Park be removed, and expressing concern about the spilling of dune sand onto some properties (a result of the removal of the front dunes).

In August, Council hired Meridian Planning Consultants, together with the Planning Partnership and AMEC International to prepare a Management Plan Study for the park. They began with a workshop on August 27 which was attended by 138 concerned residents.

Attendees (including a number from Deanlea) spoke of the need for dune restoration, protective zoning, planting of native beach vegetation, and protection of the back dunes from further erosion. They wanted spaced barriers at a number of access points to keep vehicles off the dunes and boardwalks and stairs to help prevent erosion. Many saw the Bluewater Park as a neighbourhood park, and not a park for broad public use.

Planning for Bluewater Park is still very much a work in progress. A second workshop on September 24 took place after this issue of the Cottager went to press. It may well have produced some fresh thinking and ideas.

Meridian Planning Consultants and their Associates are to bring their Study to Council fairly quickly, and when they do, we’ll report on their recommendations on www.tinycottager.org.