At its Monday, January 27 meeting, Huntsville Council instructed staff to move forward with the retention of counsel to apply for a court order to dissolve the 1951 agreement governing Pitman’s Bay lands.
Staff noted that the parties to the agreement, comprised of representation from several churches and the Huntsville Boy Scouts, have not met as a board and are not interested in pursuing the issue. However, staff noted that some of the parties requested that the municipality respect the spirit of the agreement, ensuring that the lands benefit the youth of the community in perpetuity.
Staff also suggested that consultations in order to formulate policy surrounding the use of Pitman’s Bay be put on hold until the agreement is dissolved.
Many councillors noted that they had heard from community members concerned with the future use of the lands. Councillors made it very clear that the municipality has no interest in selling the lands.
Councillor Jason FitzGerald said that when the legal recommendations, which included the possibility of selling the lands to the benefit of youth in the community, were made public, they caused concern. “I see 50 acres could be sold, could be sold, could be sold, and I don’t think from my point of view, as someone who has used the property and all my neighbours and constituents have… enjoyed the property, I don’t think it’s something that we ever consider around this table, but for some reason, it’s out there,” he said. “So I think that maybe we’re premature in moving forward with just getting the agreement abolished by the courts before we have some kind of plan that puts everyone’s mind at rest and that we guarantee the future use is for youth purposes.”
Councillor Scott Morrison said he did not want to slow staff down in the process, which will include public consultation. “The longer we wait, the longer it is going to be before we can get youth on the property, and that’s what we all want… I just want to keep it going while also protecting the covenant.”
Councillor Cory Clarke questioned what the benefits of winding up the trust would be if the Town remained as the trustee of the lands. “If it’s council’s intent to preserve the property for youth purposes, which I believe it is, then I’d like a clear answer as to why that’s the best option. Whatever is done, we want to ensure that the changes that are made won’t have unintended consequences down the road,” said Clarke. “I’m not sure why the rush to wind up the trust without a clear plan first and with consultation from all parties.” He said he did not understand why the Town could not just remain a trustee and remove the other parties to the agreement.
Colleen MacDonald, Operations Manager for the Town, said it would clean up the process. She explained that notwithstanding programming for youth, “if the municipality is set out to offer programming that’s inclusive and accessible to everyone, they are the ones that would be investing the funds, they’re the ones taking all the risk, if you start having other partners some willing, some unwilling, it can be very muddy in the water,” she noted. “We were just trying to set up a very straightforward way to approach the potential future programming.”
Clarke said he believes the current agreement covers the municipality now. “Basically, we are operating it. We are maintaining it. We are looking after it, and we have been doing all that for many years under the trustee situation that we’re talking about now. So I really struggle with the idea of why we need to go down this whole road of disbanding the trusteeship.”
Councillor Helena Renwick also questioned whether the municipality needed to apply for a court order when, as trustee, it already has the ability to enter into agreements with user groups.
Councillor Bob Stone said he agrees with the intent of the agreement that it’s for youth in the community and environmental stewardship but also said he’d like to see it used “by more of our citizens broadly.”
Huntsville CAO Denise Corry explained that the issue is that the agreement is not valid because a board does not exist. “So for staff to move forward with developing a policy or a bylaw, we can do a full open process, which we would absolutely do, but once we get that, we have nowhere to go with it. We don’t have a board to review it with.” She said staff received legal advice to dissolve the agreement in order to formally move forward.
Councillor Dione Schumacher said she had also received calls on the issue, and the fear is that ending the agreement opens the door to the possibility of development. She said while members of the community trust this council, there are concerns about what could happen in the future to the lands.
“I think we already directed staff to do a job here; why are we pointing them in another direction?” questioned Councillor Monty Clouthier. “We’ve spent money on it, lots of time on it. They’re headed in the right direction. They’re doing what we asked them to do; why are we taking their nose and turning it the other way, pointing them in another direction? We’ve got to stop doing that,” he said.
In the end, council agreed to include a statutory declaration to accompany the court order that would be registered with the land, stating that the land be dedicated and used for youth purposes in perpetuity.
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock asked that the process of creating policy around the use of the land continue while the municipality seeks a court order.
The majority of council voted in favour of the resolution, with Councillor Clarke voting against it.
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why not preserve the history with a small park, and put in low income housing for young families before all land is converted to condos, the future is now. no more city land left, sorry and Avery beach could do with a marina bring life back to Huntsville, create jobs, not everyone lives in a castle
If we need a Board to oversee the property then let’s set up a Board. I’m sure there would be no problem getting volunteers. I agree with Cory. Stand firm.
I, too, remember Pitman’s Bay as a wonderful place. I lived just up the road from it and would see groups of boy scouts walking out the road kicking stones, throughing sticks into the creek on one side of the road, then running across the road to see it floating through the culvert on the other side. One of my young kids tried that one time with their shoe. As far as I know, the shoe is still in the culvert.
One time, the boy scouts were walking back to the Bay, and our collie dog decided to join them. She ended up having a sleepover. They brought her back the next day with many thanks. My one daughter was a girl guide, and they were having a weekend at Pitmans Bay. I was one of the cooks for that weekend. Oh, what a wonderful time was had by all.
I also recall when our church had a picnic there. It was such fun, swimming, playing games etc.. It is such a beautiful place.
I agree with Cory Clarke. Leave it as it is, a delightful, welcoming place for all.
Why spend a lot of money trying to fix something that isn’t broken.
Makes you shudder to think that our council’s attention is on Pittman’s Bay. Quite a desirable piece of property. Worth a lot of money. Imagine how the cash could be doodled away hiring consultant for this or that. Or just piddled away painting clouds and rainbows. Just an opinion for sure.
Spent a lot of time down at the bay when my boys were cubs and scouts and sometimes just when people got together for an afternoon out. There were always volunteers to help the organizers back then because like me, they liked the outings. After the boys aged out I would still go down and help sometimes. But you noticed that the volunteers were getting to be pretty much STP. Same Ten People.
It would be a great placed if developed as community park but we all know how such property needs constant monitoring. There are mental midgets on the loose out there.
But as Dave Johns said, there were good times and good memories to be had.