Huntsville’s public boat launches – and the lack of them – were a hot topic of discussion at yesterday’s General Committee meeting (May 26).
Town staff presented a recommendation that, due to safety concerns, the Town stop servicing the boat launch on Brunel Road and investigate re-opening the launch at Memorial Park adjacent to the Canada Summit Centre.
Traffic speed on Brunel, pedestrian safety, reversing trucks and trailers at roads’ edge, limited parking space, a narrow launch path, and potential swimmer versus boat traffic conflict were all cited as concerns.
The Brunel launch area is a road allowance owned by the District of Muskoka. Town staff further recommended that the District “identify the level of service available at this location and sign and secure as they deem appropriate.”
Currently, the Town installs a floating dock at the site for use as a launch. The recommendation could have meant removal of the dock, a sign advising people to use the launch at their own risk, or a physical barrier preventing access. Colleen MacDonald, the Town’s Manager of Parks and Cemeteries noted that because the District owns the land, they could also potentially take action independent of the Town.
“This past weekend alone there were probably eight to ten vehicles there,” said Councillor Dan Armour. “Right now that is the only boat launch access to Fairy Lake. It will be a huge concern for many residents.”
I don’t think June 1 is a good time in Huntsville to close a boat launch.Councillor Karin Terziano
Committee defeated the recommendation but approved a motion for staff to submit a licence of occupation application to the District to continue to use the site as is.
The Brunel Road boat launch discussion opened up a broader one on the lack of public boat launches in Huntsville and how the Town could increase the number available.
Staff’s second recommendation – hiring an engineer to investigate a design and cost for re-opening the boat launch at Memorial Park (on the Muskoka River next to the Active Living Centre) – was one option on the table.
The existing grade at the former launch site is 20 per cent – ramp grades are usually between 12 and 15 per cent – and MacDonald said that in brief consultation with an engineer she was told reconfiguring the site to be usable wouldn’t be easy but not impossible. The Town has also been asked by its accessibility advisory committee for two years running to put an accessible path from the parking area down to the existing dock, a request that has thus far been denied through the budgeting process.
“This was a really incredibly active boat launch before it was shut down. You may remember a lot of hue and cry went up when it was shut down. I feel strongly that we need this one and broader analysis of other areas needs to be done as well,” said Mayor Scott Aitchison. He tabled an amendment that the Town issue an RFP for a design-build rather than consulting with an engineer on the Memorial Park boat launch. Committee agreed.
The Town will be issuing a RFP for the Memorial Park boat launch
Aitchison said he’d also like to see Committee work on a more comprehensive plan for access to the water, and suggested that making exceptions to the Town’s policy of not selling road allowances that lead to water might be a solution.
If there are circumstances where someone wants to buy a road allowance that leads to water that would never be accessible by the public and we could use that money to create a boat access somewhere, why wouldn’t we do that?Mayor Scott AItchison
To laughter from Committee, he noted that some of those road allowances lead to cliffs. “You wouldn’t get a boat over them unless you were trying to get rid of a boat… Saving every single road allowance that leads to water for the sake of saving it I think defeats the purpose of the policy in the first place.”
Councillor Jonathan Wiebe wondered if private lands should be considered as well to determine “if it’s more cost effective to acquire rather than trying to build a boat launch that’s difficult to do on our own land.”
Committee elected to begin with an analysis of their own holdings and staff were directed to investigate the potential of additional boat launches utilizing town-owned land and report back to Committee with their findings.
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