October 9th , 2009

Attorney General Appealing Lake Property Case

There are 14 waterfront road allowances in Fort Erie and local resident Stephen Passero, who is also the president of the Ontario Shorewalk Association, says the majority of them need to appear more like public lands.

At Monday's regular council meeting, seven delegations were made by mostly seasonal residents who admit the landscape of their property encroaches onto public land. But the majority of them feel removal of retaining walls and fences on some of the properties should not be removed at their known expense if the Town of Fort Erie instructs them to do so.

One of the delegates Hallie Brownstein met with the Times a couple days after the meeting, when she spoke on behalf of her aunt and uncle who are the owners of the property in question.

On the Beachview Avenue property, a rock garden and what Brownstein referred to as a retaining wall is a feature that encroaches onto the public road allowance and access point to the waterfront was the topic of discussion at the meeting.

She feels some of the other road allowances are more problematic than the one next to her aunt and uncle's property, saying there are other ones that may appear to be private to the unaware visitor.

"There's plenty of access to come down here," she said.

Brownstein continued to say she could come to terms with an encroachment agreement with the Town, a legal contract stating if the rock garden did become unusable or dilapidated due to weather or other reasons, it would have to be removed.

"I could make peace with that," she said.

Passero said he wants to work closely with residents, to educate them about eliminating the perception that these road allowances are private property when in fact it's the total opposite. He said some visitors and residents immediately assume the allowances are public because of encroachments and people parking cars there.

"What they see looks like private property…fences, sidewalks, sheds, residents vehicles parked on the road allowance because they use them as their own personal driveways and parking lots," said Passero.

After the meeting, when four of the seven reports relating to each delegates property were tabled, Passero said he is happy with the way the residents are approaching the situation.

"I look forward to working with neighbouring residents to reach a compromise on some concerns raised this evening…but make no mistake, I will not back down from my stance that when all is said and done, these road allowances should be improved, maintained, and made more accessible to the public."